P.  H.  PEARSE 
First  President  of  the  Irish  Republic 


HISTORY  OF  THE 
SINN   FEIN  MOVEMENT  AND 
THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


FRANCIS  P.JONES 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

HON.  JOHN  W.  GOFF 


Third  and  Enlarged  Edition 


NEW  YORK 
P.  J.  KENEDY  &  SONS 
1921 


COPYRIGHT,  I917 
BY  P.  J.  KENEDY  &  SONS 


O'NEILL  LlbhARV 
BOSTON  COLLEGE 


TO  MY  WIFE 

MAIRE  HASTINGS 


THE  LAD  WHO  SMILED  AT  ME 

'Twas  in  Dublin  Town  I  met  him, 
A  lad  with  wistful  face, 
With  dark  blue  eyes  and  blue-black 
hair 

And  form  of  slender  grace. 

And  as  I  passed  him  swiftly, 
He  shyly  smiled  at  me; 
He  took  my  heart  along  with  him 
And  left  me  memory. 

And  yet  I  know,  and  this  is  true, 
I'll  meet  him  once  again, 
And  look  into  his  eyes  of  blue 
Through  mists  of  Irish  rain. 

And  this  is  true,  though  Fate  may 

frown, 
I  know  that  he  loves  me, 
And  I'll  walk  again  in  Dublin  Town 
With  the  lad  who  smiled  at  me. 

— Maur?  Hastings  Jones. 


PREFACE  TO  THIRD  EDITION 


IHE  attention  of  the  reader  is  called  to  the  additional 


matter  on  pages  418  to  420  relating  to  the  execu- 


tion of  the  leaders  of  the  Easter  Week  Rising.  This 
has  been  supplied  to  me  personally  by  the  Rev.  Father 
Augustine,  the  heroic  Priest  who  attended  many  of  the 
condemned  men  before  their  execution  and  who  was  with 
them  at  the  supreme  moment  of  their  sacrifice.  It  is  not 
possible  for  me  adequately  to  express  my  appreciation  of 
Father  Augustine's  kindly  collaboration  with  me  in  making 
perfect  this  section  of  the  record,  and  for  the  deep  interest 
he  has  taken  in  the  work  as  a  whole. 

It  is  just  possible  that  the  reader  may  have  inferred 
some  criticism  of  the  action  of  Eoin  McNeil  in  counter- 
manding the  order  for  Easter  Sunday.  The  sterling 
patriotism  of  McNeil  is,  in  itself,  sufficient  refutation  of 
any  such  inference,  which  was  farthest  from  my  intention. 


Francis  P.  Jones 


January,  1020 


vi 


INTRODUCTION 


OT  within  the  confines  of  human  knowledge  has 


it  been  known  that  any  one  nation  has  wielded 


such  power  or  exercised  such  arbitrary  control 
over  international  communications  as  England  does 
to-day.  The  ships  on  the  water  that  carry  the  mails, 
the  ocean  cables  beneath  the  water,  and  the  wireless 
telegraphy  above  the  water  are  each  and  all  completely 
in  her  hands.  Every  avenue  of  intelligence  is  guarded 
by  her  police  and  picketed  by  her  agents.  Service  to 
her  interests  is  the  rule  applied  to  the  suppression  or  the 
dissemination  of  news. 

In  the  titanic  struggle  for  existence  in  which  she  is 
engaged,  this,  from  her  point  of  view,  may  be  justifi- 
able; but  from  the  point  of  view  of  history,  founded 
upon  truth,  it  is  a  malforming  of  facts  and  a  poisoning 
of  the  wells  of  knowledge.  In  none  of  the  fields  of  her 
worldwide  activities  is  her  censorship  so  complete  or 
so  drastic  as  it  is  in  matters  relating  to  Ireland  or  Ire- 
land's interests  at  home  or  abroad.  Not  that  there  is 
anything  new  in  her  misrepresentation  of  Ireland  and 
the  Irish.  That  she  has  done  for  centuries  in  the  forum, 
on  the  stage,  and  through  the  influences  of  her  literature 
and  drama.  But  never  has  there  been  such  wholesale 
suppression  of  realities  and  falsification  of  truth  as  since 
the  great  war.  Commencement  was  made  by  the  false 
acclaim  of  Ireland's  loyalty,  and  the  climax  was  reached 
by  the  perversion  of  the  rebellion  of  Easter  week  into 
an  inconsequential  street  riot.  As  time  recedes  from 
that  tragic  event,  the  larger  will  it  loom  in  the  memory 


Vll 


viii 


INTRODUCTION 


of  the  Irish  race;  and  whatever  tends  to  penetrate 
and  clarify  the  fog  in  which  English  misrepresentation 
has  sought  to  enshroud  it,  is  a  distinctive  and  lasting 
service  to  historical  truth.  To  everyone  whose  mental 
vision  is  not  distorted  by  prejudice,  the  opportunity 
of  learning  the  truth  and  of  forming  impartial  judgment 
of  the  actions  and  motives  of  the  men  who  have  been 
maligned,  or  at  most  misunderstood,  must  be  welcomed. 

Fortunately  for  the  cause  of  truth,  this  opportunity 
is  now  presented  by  the  timely  publication  of  "History 
of  the  Sinn  Fein  Movement  and  the  Irish  Rebellion  of 
1916,"  written  by  an  author  whose  facilities  for  ac- 
quiring first-hand  knowledge  were  unsurpassed,  and  whose 
capacity  for  imparting  it  will  be  appreciated  by  those 
who  read  the  book. 

To  write  intelligently  and  convincingly  of  Irish  affairs 
requires  familiarity  with  a  tangled  subject  and  a  keen- 
ness of  vision  that  will  perceive  the  genuine  from  the 
counterfeit.  These  qualifications  spring  from  sym- 
pathy for  and  with  the  people,  without  which  the  writer 
(as  in  many  cases  exemplified)  plunges  into  a  morass  of 
generalization,  and  becomes  as  detached  from  his  sub- 
ject as  Ireland  is  in  spirit  from  England.  That  the 
author  of  this  book  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  that 
sympathy  is  manifest  on  every  page;  yet,  withal,  his 
sympathy  does  not  cloud  his  perception  or  warp  his 
judgment.  He  maintains  throughout  a  fine  sense  of 
proportion,  and  his  shadings  but  make  more  emphatic 
his  work  in  relief.  What  is  called  the  impartial  pinnacle 
is  in  Ireland  almost  impossible  of  attainment.  The 
rancor  of  party  politics  reaches  an  intensity  unknown  in 
America.  Here  political  disputations  generally  center 
on  domestic  material  questions  and  very  rarely  affect 
the  personal  relations  of  the  citizens.    There,  there 


INTRODUCTION 


are  involved  social  distinctions  and  ambitions,  tradi- 
tional prejudices,  racial  and  not  infrequently  religious 
antipathies,  and  above  all  the  ever  present,  though  slum- 
bering, hostility  to  English  rule.  Through  this  maze 
the  author  guides  a  well-tempered  steady  pen  that  at 
no  time  is  dipped  in  gall,  though  the  opportunities  for 
invective  are  not  few.  Conspicuous  in  this  regard  is  his 
treatment  of  the  Parliamentarians,  the  Home  Rule  Bill, 
and  the  recruiting  propaganda,  subjects  to  which  strong 
and  vivid  expressions  might  well  be  applied.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  the  provoking  inducements  to  "let 
the  gall'd  jade  wince,"  he  pursues  a  course  of  modera- 
tion that  enhances  the  value  of  the  clear  and  simple, 
but  dignified,  narrative. 

A  most  valued  part  of  the  book  is  that  which  deals 
with  the  Sinn  Fein  movement.  Fostered  by  misrepre- 
sentation, and  aided  by  lack  of  correct  information, 
ignorance  regarding  it  has  assumed  amazing  sway. 
Even  men  of  a  high  order  of  intelligence  have  been  mis- 
led by  rumor  and  "cable  hearsay"  to  form  the  most 
grotesque  opinions  concerning  its  nature  and  purpose. 
The  prevailing  view  is  that  it  was  a  secret  oathbound 
society  with  revolution  as  its  object  and  dark  deeds  its 
means.  No  doubt  it  will  surprise  many  to  learn  from 
the  clear  definitions  given  in  this  book  that  it  was  not  a 
secret  oathbound  society,  and  had  no  relation  to  plans 
or  schemes  for  revolution.  No  doubt  but  that  many 
Sinn  Feiners  were  revolutionists  in  spirit  and  act,  and 
equally  so  there  were  many  Sinn  Feiners  opposed  to 
revolution  by  force.  Of  itself,  the  movement  might  be 
termed  patriotic  political  economy,  and  for  unselfish 
aims  coupled  with  patriotic  purpose  has  not  had  its 
equal  in  modern  times.  Indeed,  it  was  more.  It  was 
altruistic  in  its  projected  service  to  country  and  human- 


X 


INTRODUCTION 


ity,  and  its  spirit  is  expressed  in  a  free  translation  of  its 
title:  For  Ourselves.  It  was  born  of  the  terrible  con- 
dition of  Ireland:  a  fertile  country,  always  on  the  verge 
of  famine;  an  island  favorably  situated  on  the  world's 
great  water  lanes,  its  coast  line  indented  with  capacious 
harbors,  without  shipping  or  commerce;  a  land  with 
fine  water  facilities  and  rich  mineral  deposits,  without 
trade  or  industry;  and  a  vigorous,  fecund  population, 
decaying  so  rapidly  as  to  bring  into  view  the  vanishing 
point  of  the  race.  Said  the  Sinn  Feiners:  Nature  has 
blessed  our  country;  it  has  been  cursed  by  man.  We 
eat  English  bread,  we  wear  English  clothes.  Industrial 
enterprise  depends  on  English  capital,  and  the  best 
products  of  our  land  are  taken  to  English  markets. 
We  are  taught  to  think  and  speak  in  English  and  fashion 
our  morals  on  English  lines.  Let  us  encourage,  as  far 
as  we  can,  home  industry,  by  refusing  to  buy  or  consume 
articles  of  foreign  manufacture  or  product;  let  us  stimu- 
late Irish  trade  by  the  aid  of  Irish  capital  being  applied 
to  Irish  enterprise;  let  us  retain  and  employ  our  men 
by  cultivating  the  soil,  reaping  the  harvest,  and  feed- 
ing our  people,  instead  of  raising  sheep  and  cattle  for 
the  Englishman's  table;  let  us  have  a  system  of  national 
education  that  will  instill  into  the  heart  of  youth  love 
of  country,  reverence  for  its  historic  past,  and  hope 
for  its  future  welfare,  instead  of  the  present  system  that 
denationalizes  and  degrades  and  fosters  contempt 
for  everything  Irish.  These  and  kindred  objects  con- 
stituted its  program,  and  they  were  capable  of  attain- 
ment by  means  of  association  only.  Surely  fault  should 
not  be  found  with  a  people  who  by  peaceable  means 
endeavor  by  cooperation  to  elevate  themselves  to  a 
plane  of  dignified  national  existence  and  intellectual 
progress.    This  is  the  Infinite  design,  and  for  a  time 


INTRODUCTION 


xi 


at  least  it  has  been  frustrated  by  man.  It  is  noticeable 
that  even  under  the  extraordinary  powers  conferred  by 
the  Defense  of  the  Realm  Act  Sinn  Fein  has  not  been 
proclaimed,  nor  has  there  been  one  public  trial  or 
prosecution  for  espousal  of  its  principles.  The  reason  is 
plain:  its  principles  do  not  violate  even  a  clause  of 
English  law,  and  while  the  society  has  not  been  placed 
under  legal  ban,  its  members  have  been  persecuted 
upon  the  vicious,  but  oft-applied,  principle  that  he  who 
seeks  to  benefit  Ireland  thereby  becomes  the  enemy  of 
England.  If  the  author  did  no  more  than  give  the 
instructive  outline  of  this  most  interesting  chapter  of 
Irish  History,  and  rescue  it  from  possible  oblivion  or 
certain  derision,  he  has  made  a  valuable  contribution 
to  what  has  been  termed  the  dismal  science,  and  furnished 
a  text  for  elaboration  as  to  how  an  impoverished,  dis- 
armed, and  powerless  people,  acting  in  unison,  may 
thwart  the  schemes  of  the  powerful. 

But  it  is  in  his  treatment  of  the  rebellion  of  Easter 
week  that  he  reaches  the  climax  of  interest.  Naturally 
is  this  so,  for  it  contains  all  the  dramatic  elements  which 
stir  the  imagination  and  is  saddened  by  the  somber 
fringe  of  tragedy.  His  narrative  is  an  etching.  Its 
clear  cut  lines  are  unembellished  by  flower  or  figure, 
and  in  their  strength  and  simplicity  lie  their  historical 
value.  Philosophic  reflections  and  deductions  are  left 
to  other  minds  and  times,  but  the  living  facts  are  pre- 
sented so  vividly  that  they  cannot  be  minimized  or  dis- 
torted. Some  features  are  so  prominent  that  they  are 
calculated  to  engross  the  attention  to  the  exclusion  of 
others  equally  important.  First  among  these  is  the 
established  determination  of  the  "Castle"  to  disarm 
the  volunteers  and  arrest  the  leaders.  By  this  act  of 
aggression  it  was  intended  to  accomplish  three  things: 


xii 


INTRODUCTION 


first,  to  strike  terror  into  the  people  by  the  moral  advan- 
tage of  dealing  the  first  blow;  secondly,  to  coerce  the  men 
arrested  into  enlistment  in  the  army;  and  thirdly,  to  still 
in  the  silence  of  the  prison  cell  the  voices  of  the  men  who 
had  agitated  against  and  made  recruiting  a  failure. 

A  sinister  sidelight  is  thrown  upon  the  "Castle" 
council  when  it  was  urged  that  the  contemplated  assault 
upon  the  people  would  produce  a  bad  effect  in  America. 
General  Friend,  the  commander  of  the  forces,  declared 
that  he  did  not  care  about  America,  and  that  at  all  events, 
if  the  Irish  there  became  troublesome,  the  American 
government  would  deport  them.  The  second  feature 
is  the  unfortunate  countermand  of  Eoin  MacNeill  to 
the  volunteers.  Had  this  not  been  issued  —  well,  it 
is  idle  to  speculate  on  "what  might  have  been."  One 
thing  may  be  reasonably  assumed,  that  even  though 
the  end  were  not  different,  the  cost  of  reaching  it  would 
have  been.  Many  of  the  circumstances  surrounding 
that  fatal  order  may  never  be  known.  Casement,  the 
pure  and  chivalrous,  is  dead,  and  MacNeill,  the  scholar 
and  kindly  gentleman,  is  immured  for  life.  Notwith- 
standing that  in  the  bitterness  of  defeat  men  may  rashly 
express  themselves  as  to  causes,  it  is  creditable  to  the 
Irish  race  that  not  one  word  had  been  uttered  impugning 
the  honor  or  the  motives  of  either  of  those  splendid 
patriots.  And  in  harmony  with  that  tribute,  it  may 
here  be  mentioned  that,  so  far  as  is  known,  there  has 
not  figured  in  this  rebellion  that  tool  of  England  and 
shame  of  Ireland,  —  the  informer. 

Worthy  of  the  classic  lines  which  have  immortalized 
the  Greek  heroes  are  those  men,  who,  with  knowledge 
of  their  plans  having  been  disordered  and  of  the  over- 
whelming power  of  the  enemy  they  challenged,  went 
intrepidly  to  sacrifice  for  their  principles.    The  timid 


INTRODUCTION 


xiii 


and  prudent  calculator  may  say  that  they  were  rash 
and  wildly  impractical  and  wholly  devoid  of  comfort- 
able worldly  sense.  While  from  a  selfish  and  super- 
ficial point  of  view  this  may  be  partially  true,  yet  the 
fact  should  not  be  overlooked  that  but  for  such  men  in 
all  ages  humanity  could  not  have  broken  the  shackles 
with  which  tyranny  and  power  had  frequently  bound  it. 
But  these  men  were  not  blind  fatalists.  They  were 
Christian  men,  of  blameless  fives,  with  tender  ties  of 
blood  and  affection,  endowed  with  intellectual  gifts 
of  a  high  order,  and  a  fine  moral  fiber  that  gives  grace 
and  beauty  to  human  existence,  and  that  vibrates  in 
sympathy  with  every  aspiration  for  truth  and  justice. 
All  that  makes  life's  journey  pleasant  and  attractive 
was  held  in  promise  for  them,  had  they  but  pursued  the 
smooth  and  beaten  path  of  self-interest  and  sterile  ego- 
ism. For  their  bravery  and  courtly  conduct  generous 
words  of  praise  have  been  extended  even  by  their  Eng- 
lish enemies.  It  is  only  from  the  servile  Irish  "Hero- 
dians"  that  bitter  words  have  come.  What  must  be 
the  remorse  of  Mr.  Redmond,  their  chief,  when  he  re- 
flects on  the  language  he  used  in  a  cablegram  to  New 
York  a  short  time  after  the  outbreak  and  before  the 
truth  escaped  the  censor.  He  said:  "The  whole  dis- 
graceful plot  is  viewed  with  execration  by  the  Irish 
people.  It  was  almost  entirely  a  Dublin  movement; 
partly  the  creation  of  the  Sinn  Fein  cranks  and  German 
agents  there,  partly  of  the  remnants  of  that  mass  of 
discontent  and  anarchy  which  was  left  by  the  disastrous 
Larkinite  strike.  ...  I  have  received  communication 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  declaring  vehement  con- 
demnation by  Irishmen  of  this  insane  and  wicked  at- 
tempt to  destroy  all  Ireland's  hopes,  just  at  the  moment 
when,  after  centuries  of  vain  struggle,  they  were  about 


xiv 


INTRODUCTION 


to  be  fully  realized.' '  For  his  sin  "Vathek"  was  con- 
demned to  eternal  exposure  of  his  scorched  heart  in  a 
transparent  body. 

So  numerous  were  acts  of  heroism  and  devotion  to 
duty  that  to  single  any  one  of  them  would  appear  in- 
vidious. One,  however,  may  be  mentioned  as  presenting 
incidents  of  romantic  adventure  worthy  of  being  en- 
shrined in  poetry.  Longfellow  enshrined  "Paul  Revere's 
Ride"  from  Charlestown  to  Lexington  in  graceful  verse, 
and  Buchanan  Reed  sculptured  "Sheridan's  Ride"  to 
Winchester  on  Homeric  lines.  In  "The  O'Rahilly's" 
ride  to  Limerick,  vividly  described  by  the  author,  there 
is  rich  material  and  inspiration  for  the  poet's  genius. 

A  true  perspective  of  the  acts  and  motives  of  the  men 
who  organized  and  led  the  rebellion  of  Easter  week  can 
only  be  had  through  sympathy  with  heroic  endeavor. 
It  would  be  as  unjust  to  their  memory  as  it  would  be 
misleading  to  the  student  of  history  to  measure  them 
by  the  gross  materialism  of  the  day.  Granted  that  they 
were  idealists,  but  they  were  idealists  with  a  very  prac- 
lical  turn  of  mind,  that  had  a  clear  conception  of  their 
rights  as  well  as  their  duties.  They  knew  that  God 
alone  fixed  Ireland's  place  on  this  planet,  that  He  gave 
its  people  a  language  and  implanted  in  them  an  instinct 
for  racial  and  national  existence,  that  He  conferred  upon 
them  the  right  to  make  their  own  laws  for  Ireland  and 
in  Ireland,  and  that  lie  had  never  abrogated  that  right 
by  transferring  it  to  England.  They  knew  they  had 
been  deprived  of  that  right  by  force,  and  that  it  could 
never  be  regained  except  by  a  duty  fulfilled,  and  the  ful- 
fillment of  that  duty  was  life's  highest  law.  They  were 
convinced  that  a  nation  that  has  lost  its  freedom  does 
not  deserve  it,  unless  to  regain  it  it  is  ready  to  march 
to  victory  through  constancy  in  sacrifice. 


INTRODUCTION 


xv 


In  sadness  the  written  and  spoken  history  of  their 
country  told  them  that  the  path  of  the  patriot  led  to 
poverty,  exile,  imprisonment,  or  death,  and  that  his 
only  ladder  to  fame  were  the  steps  leading  to  the  scaffold. 
With  that  grim  record  before  them,  every  man  of  them 
staked  his  life  against  desperate  odds.  They  knew 
that  the  chances  of  victory  were  remote,  but  they  de- 
termined to  leave  an  enduring  example.  Why  this 
sublime  courage  and  splendid  fortitude?  Because  they 
had  absorbed  the  spiritual  meaning  of  Kathleen  ni 
Houlihan,  so  that  it  had  permeated  their  soul.  To 
them  patriotism  meant  more  than  calculating  for  op- 
portunity and  balancing  for  expediency.  It  was  to 
them  a  religion  that,  when  needs  be,  required  sacrifice  — 
and  sacrifice  of  life  and  liberty  they  made  for  conscience 
and  for  Ireland,  that  her  much  troubled  and  tried  but 
immutable  spirit  may  live. 

John  W.  Goff 

New  York, 
March  4,  1917. 


PREFACE 


DURING  the  last  week  of  May,  1916, 1  received  a  letter 
from  Oublin  stating  that  my  friend,  Arthur  Griffith, 
the  founder  of  the  Sinn  Fein  movement,  had  been 
arrested  and  his  house  ransacked  by  the  British  military 
authorities. 

As  it  happened,  I  had  in  my  possession,  and  stiE  have,  a 
copy  of  The  Emm  Fein  Policy,  as  written  by  Griffith.  I 
was  aware,  before  I  left  EhibKn.  that  very  few  copies  of  the 
pamphlet  were  in  existence.  On  realizing  that  Griffith  was 
silenced  in  an  English  prison,  and  out  of  a  feeling  of  comrade- 
ship to  him  and  a  desire  to  preserve  his  work,  I  decided  to  set 
down  the  truth  regarding  that  policy  and  movement  of  which 
the  world  then  was,  and  still  is,  thinking. 

The  men  whose  names  have  since  been  immortafind  in  the 
hearts  of  men  and  women  of  the  Irish  race  the  world  over  were 
my  personal  friends.  For  years  it  had  been  my  privilege  to 
work  with  them,  to  know  them  intimately,  and  to  share  a  little 
in  that  work  of  preparation  which  Liter  led  to  the  reawaken- 
ing of  the  soul  of  Ireland.  Many  of  them  were  intimate 
and  particular  friends  and  comrades  of  niine  —  for  example, 
Michael  O'Hanrahan  and  The  O'Rahilly  —  and  I  feh  also 
that  the  time  had  come  to  set  upon  record  the  truth  regarding 
them  and  the  ideals  for  which  they  worked  and  died.  Since 
April,  1916,  many  articles  about  these  men  have  appeared  in 
American  periodicals,  often  by  writers  whose  knowledge  could 
not  be  other  than  second-hand.  Even  when  written  with  the 
best  intentions,  these  articles  gave  rise  to  false  impressions- 
In  order,  therefore,  to  portray  these  men  as  I  knew  them,  to 
set  down  some  of  the  facts  of  the  case  for  Ireland,  to  show  the 
manner  in  which  this  nation,  one  of  the  small  nations  of  which 
we  hear  so  much  in  these  days  of  war,  has  been  plundered  and 

XTU 


xviii 


PREFACE 


robbed  of  her  industries,  her  rights  and  liberties  —  of  all,  in 
short,  save  her  honor  —  I  set  about  the  compilation  of  this 
work,  if  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  my  own  two  little  sons 
might  know  the  truth. 

It  has  been  said,  and  truly,  that  England  has  erected  paper 
walls  around  Ireland.  On  the  inside  of  these  walls  she  writes 
that  which  she  wants  the  Irish  people  to  believe  about  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  on  the  outside  that  which  she  hopes  the 
world  will  believe  about  Ireland.  For  months  before  the  re- 
bellion the  Irish  people  were  told  that  the  men  of  Ireland 
were  joining  the  British  army  by  so  many  thousands  per 
week,  the  truth  being,  as  was  later  demonstrated,  that  the 
men  of  Ireland,  and  the  women,  too,  were  preparing  to  strike 
for  their  freedom.  In  spite  of  political  intrigues,  base  bar- 
gains made  by  traitors,  and  appalling  economic  conditions, 
there  were  many  in  Ireland  with  red  blood  in  their  veins  and 
the  old  dream  in  their  hearts,  who  worked  and  prayed  that 
their  dream  might  come  true  and  who  called  deep  in  their 
hearts  to  the  Ireland  of  their  love: 

0!  Dear  Dark  II cad ',  though  but  the  curlew* s  screaming, 

Wakens  the  echoes  of  the  hill  and  glen; 
Yet  shalt  thou  see  once  more  the  bright  steel  gleaming, 

Yet  shalt  thou  hear  again  the  tramp  of  men; 
And  though  their  fathers'  fate  be  theirs,  shall  others 

With  hearts  as  faithful  still  that  pathway  tread. 
Till  ice  have  set,  oh!  mother  dear  of  mothers, 

A  nation's  crown  npon  thy  Dear  Dark  Head. 

The  bright  steel  gleaming  was  their  hope,  as  it  has  ever  been 
of  an  unconquerable  and  martial  people,  for  who  can  conquer 
a  race  that  breeds  men  who  went  smilingly  to  death  for  free- 
dom, and  men  who,  with  the  guns  of  the  usurpers  around  them 
and  their  city  in  ashes  behind  them,  went  singing  into  exile, 
young  men  whose  unconquerable  spirit  was  so  evident  in  their 
erect  bearing  as  they  marched  on  their  way  to  English  prisons 
that  tears  streamed  down  the  cheeks  of  women  and  old  men 
took  off  their  hats  as  they  passed? 


PREFACE 


While  it  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  subject  has  been  ap- 
proached frankly  from  an  Irish  point  of  view,  at  the  same 
time  no  effort  has  been  spared  to  keep  the  record  in  strict  ac- 
cordance with  the  facts  available,  even  when  these  facts  are 
such  as  I  would  willingly  see  erased  from  the  record  of  Irish 
history.  At  the  same  time  the  mass  of  material  has  been  so 
great  that  the  chief  difficulty  has  been  to  compress  it  within 
the  compass  of  a  single  volume. 

Regarding  these  omissions,  it  may  be  well  to  mention  that 
I  had  originally  intended  to  devote  one  chapter  to  the  record 
of  English  atrocities  committed  both  during  and  after  the 
actual  fighting,  of  which  ample  proof  is  available.  This  rec- 
ord, however,  has  grown  to  such  an  extent  that  even  the  bar- 
est enumeration  would  fill  many  pages,  and  I  had,  therefore, 
to  leave  its  publication  for  another  occasion.  The  manner 
in  which  the  English  acted  in  the  execution  of  their  prisoners 
of  war  and  their  treatment  of  the  three  thousand  men  and 
women  who  were  deported  to  England,  Wales  and  Scotland, 
is  in  itself  sufficient  indication  of  what  took  place  after  the  sur- 
render of  the  Republican  leaders.  It  requires  no  stretch 
of  the  imagination  to  conjure  up  the  picture  of  what  the  English 
soldiery  would  do  in  a  helpless  city  when  we  see  the  official  heads 
of  the  British  Government  acting  in  a  manner  that  is  now  a 
matter  of  authentic  history. 

In  this  connection  nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  feeling 
throughout  Ireland  following  the  executions  and  deportations 
than  the  letter  addressed  by  the  Bishop  of  Limerick  to  General 
Maxwell.  This  letter  was  written  in  reply  to  one  from  General 
Maxwell  demanding  that  the  Bishop  take  action  against  two 
of  his  priests  alleged  by  the  British  Government  to  have  acted 
in  sympathy  with  the  Republicans.    The  letter  follows: 

ASHTORD,  ChaRLEVTLLE, 

May  17,  1916. 

Sir:  —  I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  Hth  inst., 
which  has  been  forwarded  to  me  here.    I  have  read  carefully  your 

allegations  against  Rev.  and  Rev.  ,  but  do  not  see  in  them 

any  justification  for  disciplinary  action  on  my  part.    They  are  both 


XX 


PREFACE 


excellent  priests  who  hold  strong  national  views,  but  I  do  not  know 

that  they  have  violated  any  law,  civil  or  ecclesiastical.  In  your 
letter  of  6th  inst.  you  appeal  to  me  to  help  you  in  the  furtherance  of 
your  work  as  military  dictator  of  Ireland.  Even  if  action  of  that 
kind  was  not  outside  my  province,  the  events  of  the  past  few  weeks 
would  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  have  any  part  in  proceedings  which 
I  regard  as  wantonly  cruel  and  oppressive.  You  remember  the  Jame- 
son Raid,  when  a  number  of  buccaneers  invaded  a  friendly  State 
and  fought  the  forces  of  the  lawful  government.  If  ever  men  de- 
served the  supreme  punishment,  it  was  they.  But  officially  and  un- 
officially the  influence  of  the  British  Government  was  used  to  save 
them,  and  it  succeeded.  You  took  care  that  no  plea  for  mercy  should 
interpose  on  behalf  of  the  poor  young  fellows  who  surrendered  to  you 
in  Dublin.  The  first  information  which  we  got  of  their  fate  was  the 
announcement  that  they  had  been  shot  in  cold  blood.  Personally, 
I  regard  your  action  with  horror,  and  I  believe  that  it  has  outraged 
the  conscience  of  the  country.  Then  the  deporting  by  hundreds, 
and  even  thousands,  of  poor  fellows  without  a  trial  of  any  kind  seems 
to  me  an  abuse  of  power  as  fatuous  as  it  is  arbitrary,  and  altogether 
your  regime  has  been  one  of  the  worst  and  blackest  chapters  in  the 
history  of  the  misgovernment  of  this  country.  I  have  the  honor 
to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

►^Edward  Thomas  O'Dwyer, 

„   _        .  0     T   -  Bishop  of  Limerick. 

To  General  Sir  J.  G.  Maxwell,  r 

Commander-in-Chief , 

The  Forces  in  Ireland. 

It  was  also  my  intention  to  devote  some  little  space  to  the 
consideration  of  the  means  taken  by  Mr.  John  E.  Redmond 
and  the  Parliamentary  Party,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Lloyd 
George,  the  present  British  Prime  Minister,  to  force  through 
a  scheme  of  sham  Home  Rule  that  would  have  left  Ireland 
in  worse  plight  than  ever.  The  time  may  come  when  this 
matter  will,  with  its  later  developments,  afford  subject  matter 
for  another  chapter  of  Irish  history.  In  this  place  I  merely 
propose  to  show  what  two  of  the  most  serious-minded  Irish- 
men of  their  day,  Archbishop  Walsh  of  Dublin  and  the  Bishop 
of  Limerick,  to  whom  reference  has  already  been  made,  wrote 
and  said  of  the  actions  of  Mr.  Redmond  and  his  colleagues. 


PREFACE 


Writing  in  a  Dublin  newspaper  under  date  of  July  25,  1916, 
Archbishop  Walsh  made  the  following  statement: 

Dear  Sir:  —  For  years  past  I  have  never  had  a  moment's  doubt 
that  the  Irish  Home  Rule  cause  in  Parliament  was  being  led  along 
a  line  that  could  only  bring  it  to  disaster.  But  it  was  impossible  to 
shut  one's  eyes  to  the  lamentable  fact  that  Nationalist  Ireland,  or, 
to  speak  with  accuracy,  the  preponderating  majority  of  those  of  our 
people  who  still  retained  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  Constitutional  agita- 
tion, had  become  hopelessly  possessed  of  the  disastrous  idea  that  "the 
Party"  —  or  to  use  the  new-fangled  term,  its  "leaders"  —  could  do 
no  wrong.  Fair  criticism  was  at  an  end,  and  any  one,  thorough- 
going Nationalist  though  he  might  be,  who  ventured  to  express  an 
opinion  at  variance  with  theirs  became  at  once  a  fair  mark  for  every 
political  adventurer  in  the  country  to  assail  with  the  easily  handled 
epithets  of  " factionist,"  "wrecker"  or  "traitor." 

Having  then  a  duty  to  discharge  to  the  ecclesiastical  position  that 
I  have  the  honor  to  hold,  I  felt  that  I  could  most  fittingly  indicate 
my  strong  view  of  the  lamentable  position  of  the  Home  Rule  cause 
by  what  seemed  to  me  a  sufficiently  striking  indication  of  it  —  ab- 
solute abstention  from  everything  that  could  be  regarded  as  express- 
ing concurrence  in  the  courses  that  was  being  pursued. 

The  country  seemed  to  be  satisfied  with  that  course.  The  Home 
Rule  Act  was  on  the  statute  book;  it  could  not  be  displaced  or  modi- 
fied without  "our"  consent;  the  end  of  the  war  would  automatically 
bring  with  it  the  reopening  of  our  old  Irish  Parliament  in  College 
Green;  and  so  on. 

As  the  necessary  result  of  the  abandonment  of  the  policy  of  Inde- 
pendent Opposition  —  the  only  policy  that  can  be  followed  with  safety 
by  Irish  representatives  in  the  British  House  of  Commons  —  our 
country  is  now  face  to  face  with  a  truly  awful  prospect. 

The  Home  Rule  Act  is  still  on  the  statute  book.  Will  Irish  National- 
ists be  any  longer  befooled  by  a  repetition  of  the  party  cries,  that  this 
fact  makes  them  masters  of  the  situation;  that  the  act  cannot  be 
modified  without  Nationalist  consent;  and  that  Ireland  awaits  only 
the  end  of  the  war  to  find  the  portals  of  the  Old  House  in  College 
Green  automatically  opened  for  the  entry  of  the  members  of  a  Parlia- 
ment greater  than  Grattan's?    I  remain,  dear  sir,  faithfully  yours, 

►J<  William  J.  Walsh, 

Archbishop's  House,  Dublin,  Archbishop  of  Dublin. 

July  25,  1916. 


xxii 


PREFACE 


P.S.  —  I  cannot  close  this  letter  without  expressing  my  amaze- 
ment that  the  country  has  so  long  allowed  its  attention  to  be  distracted 
with  all  sorts  of  side  issues  regarding  the  Irish  Parliament  that  is  to 
be,  whilst  an  effective  bar  is  kept  up  —  for  this  is  what  it  comes  to 
—  against  all  real  consideration  of  the  question  whether  the  Par- 
liament that  is  to  come  to  us  is  to  be  a  Parliament  in  any  sense  worthy 
of  the  name.   ^W.  J.  W. 

On  September  14,  1916,  for  reasons  which  will  be  sufficiently 
obvious  to  those  who  have  read  the  letter  addressed  to  General 
MaxwTell,  Bishop  O'Dwyer  was  presented  with  the  freedom  of 
the  City  of  Limerick.  In  the  course  of  his  address  on  that 
occasion,  he  dealt  at  some  length  with  the  facts  of  the  situation 
as  he  saw  it.  I  quote  the  following  report  of  his  speech  from 
one  of  the  Irish  papers : 

Since  the  war  began  they  had  heard  a  good  deal  about  the  Empire 
and  their  place  in  its  greatness  and  their  duties  towards  it.  That 
argument  did  not  appeal  to  him  (Dr.  O'Dwyer).  An  empire  in  any 
true  sense  consisted  of  a  number  of  kingdoms,  each  of  which  was  a 
unit,  self-contained  and  self-governed,  but  all  of  which  came  together 
for  their  mutual  support  and  benefit.  But  that  was  not  the  case  as 
between  England  and  Ireland.  They  had  been  deprived  of  all  the 
attributes  of  a  kingdom.  They  were  a  subject  province.  They 
were  like  Egypt,  governed  by  English  Satraps  of  an  inferior  kind,  but 
in  no  sense  were  they  constituents  of  the  British  Empire,  as  Canada 
and  Australia  were.  Ireland  was  a  nation,  and  never  would  be  at 
rest  until  the  center  of  gravity  was  within  herself. 

They  might  think  that  prosperity  would  wean  their  people  from 
the  old  cause;  that  education  would  turn  thoughts  into  other  channels. 
It  was  the  flattering  unction  which  tyrants  were  always  laying  to  their 
souls;  but  the  history  of  the  world  was  against  them.  Ireland  would 
never  be  content  as  a  province.  It  was  that  national  spirit  that 
would  yet  vindicate  their  country,  and  not  the  petty  intrigues  of 
Parliamentary  chicane.  And  if  their  representatives  in  Parliament 
had  relied  on  it,  instead  of  putting  their  faith  in  Asquith  and  Lloyd 
George  and  the  Liberals,  they  would  not  be  where  they  are  to-day. 

By  way  of  defense,  some  of  them  had  been  asking  recently  for  an 
alternative  policy.  It  was  a  rather  cool  demand.  It  was  as  if  the 
captain  of  a  ship,  after  running  her  on  the  rocks,  invited  the  passengers 
to  give  their  views  of  how  the  vessel  should  have  been  navigated.  It 


PREFACE 


xxiii 


would  be  much  more  to  the  purpose  for  him  to  tell  them  how  he  pro- 
posed to  get  her  off  the  rocks.  Although  like  the  mass  of  the  people 
of  this  country,  on  whom  the  confidence  trick  had  been  played  so 
disastrously,  he  (Dr.  O'Dwyer)  had  no  responsibility  for  the  present 
deplorable  condition  of  things,  he  would  state  his  alternative  to  trust- 
ing the  Party,  who  trusted  the  Liberals,  and  were  now  reduced  to  the 
statesmanship  of  Micawber  —  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up. 

When  war  was  being  declared  he  would  have  said  to  the  English 
Government:  "Give  us  our  National  rights;  set  up  a  genuine  Parlia- 
ment in  Dublin,  and  we  are  with  you;  but,  if  you  will  not,  then  fight 
your  own  battles." 

Again,  that  very  year,  when  the  English  Government  played  false, 
he  would  have  said  to  the  Irish  members  of  Parliament:  "Come 
home,  shake  the  dust  of  the  English  House  of  Commons  off  your  feet, 
and  throw  yourselves  on  the  Irish  Nation." 

"These  are  my  alternatives,"  said  his  Lordship.  "I  think  they 
would  have  been  effective;  but  I  fear  that  they  would  not  be  in  favor 
with  our  present  Parliamentarians.  O'Connell  used  to  say  that  Eng- 
land's difficulty  was  Ireland's  opportunity.  Alliance  with  English 
politicians  is  the  alliance  of  the  lamb  with  the  wolf ;  and  it  is  at  this 
point  precisely  that  I  differ  from  the  present  political  leaders,  and 
believe  that  they  have  led,  and  are  leading,  the  national  cause  to 
disaster.  Some  people  imagine  that,  because  I  condemn  the  policy 
of  certain  politicians,  I  am  their  enemy,  and  even  a  bitter  enemy. 
In  this  they  are  wrong.  I  entertain  no  enmity  to  any  living  person; 
but,  if  I  am  to  speak  at  all  on  public  questions,  I  must  say  the  truth, 
and,  if  I  put  my  views  strongly,  it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  offense, 
but  because  the  matters  at  issue  are  of  vital  importance  and  touch 
my  deepest  feelings." 

These  are  statements  which  speak  for  themselves,  and  it 
has  been  my  endeavor,  wherever  possible,  to  allowT  the  various 
sides  of  the  case  to  be  stated  by  those  who  were  themselves 
taking  a  leading  part  in  the  shaping  of  events. 

I  would  also  like  to  have  dealt  more  fully  with  the  mag- 
nificent wTork  done  by  the  women  of  Dublin  during  the  rising. 
Their  deeds,  however,  speak  louder  and  more  eloquently  than 
any  words  of  mine.  The  chapter  entitled  the  women  of  the 
nation  was  written  by  my  wife,  Maire  Hastings,  wTho  was 
more  intimately  acquainted  with  those  of  whom  she  writes 


xxiv 


PREFACE 


than  I  was.    With  this  exception  the  responsibility  for  every 

statement  rests  upon  myself. 

The  chapters  dealing  with  the  actual  fighting  during  the 
rebellion  are  compiled  from  the  statements  of  many  of  the 
men  who  took  an  active  part  in  the  rising  and  who  have  since 
escaped  to  this  country.  It  is  not  at  this  time  considered  wise 
to  give  their  names  to  the  public,  but  I  wish  in  this  place  to 
express  to  them  my  gratitude  for  their  invaluable  assistance 
in  making  this  portion  of  the  work  as  complete  as  I  trust  the 
reader  will  find  it. 

There  is  just  one  more  point.  There  have  been  many  state- 
ments made  to  the  effect  that  the  rising  was  engineered  by  the 
German  Government  or  by  German  officials.  The  reader 
will  find  this  aspect  of  the  matter  fully  dealt  with  in  the  chap- 
ters that  follow.  I  want  to  emphasize  here  that,  whatever 
may  be  the  individual  opinion  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Republi- 
cans in  declaring  war  on  the  British  Empire,  the  fact  must  be 
admitted  that  they  had  no  option  but  to  do  so  or  submit  to 
disarmament,  defeat,  and  disgrace  and  the  surrender  of  all  those 
things  they  held  in  sacred  trust  from  their  fathers  before  them. 

They  took  the  boldest  course  because  it  was  the  only  one 
possible  for  them;  they  had  either  to  fight  on  their  own  soil 
or  admit  that  all  the  hopes  that  Ireland  held  were  held  in  vain. 
They  rose,  "the  young,  the  gifted,  the  gallant  and  the  daring," 
with  pure  hearts  and  clean  hands,  to  kindle  anew  the  sacred 
fire  that  shall  flare  high  in  Irish  hearts  until  the  end  of  time. 
With  faith  and  joy  unspeakable  they  went  to  the  sacrifice, 
for  they  were  girded  around  with  the  magic  of  a  great  love. 
They  had  "bent  low  and  low,  and  kissed  the  quiet  feet  of 
Kathleen,  the  Daughter  of  Houlihan and,  when  they  kissed 
them  last,  the  feet  of  their  love  were  red,  for  she  was  treading 
the  only  path  that  leads  to  freedom. 

But  in  her  glory  which  is  to  come  she  will  remember  for  ever 
and  ever  the  noble  ones  who  rose  at  Resurrection  time,  and 
fought  to  save  her  honor  and  died  to  save  her  soul. 

XT  T  Francis  P.  Jones 

HOBOKEN,  N.  J., 

March,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Sinn  Fein  and  Education   1 

II.  Sinn  Fein  and  the  Industrial  Problem  ...  8 

HI.    Sinn  Fein  and  Protection   15 

IV.    Sinn  Fein  and  Commerce   21 

V.    The  Poor  Law  System   27 

VI.  Sinn  Fein  and  the  Law  Courts  and   Army  .  34 

VII.    Sinn  Fein  and  Irish  Finance   40 

VIII.    The  Council  of  Three  Hundred   46 

IX.    The  Home  Rule  Bill   52 

X.    Ireland  at  Westminster   59 

XI.    The  Parliament  Act   66 

XII.    Carson  and  his  Volunteers   74 

XHI.    The  Irish  Volunteers   81 

XIV.    The  Massacre  of  Bachelor's  Walk   88 

XV.    The  King's  Veto   96 

XVI.    Under  Which  Flag?    104 

XVn.    The  Recruiting  Sergeant   112 

XVHI.    Fuel  to  the  Flames   119 

XIX.    The  Coalition  Cabinet   126 

XX.    The  Shadow  of  Conscription   133 

XXI.    The  Gathering  of  the  Clans   138 

XXn.    Righteous  Men   143 

XXIH.    The  Spirit  of  the  Gael    150 

XXIV.    The  Men  of  the  People   157 

XXV.    The  Pen  and  the  Sword   163 

XXVI.    Fighting  Men  and  Heroes   166 

XXVH.    The  Women  of  the  Nation   171 

XXVIH.    Thinkers  and  Men   178 

XXIX.    The  Irish  in  America   184 

XXX.    Sir  Roger  Casement   190 

XXXI.    Casement  in  America   196 

XXXII.    The  Plot  to  Kill  Casement   202 

XXXIII.  Straws  on  the  Stream   210 

XXXIV.  Planning  the  Rising   216 

XXXV.    An  Irish  Republic   223 

XXXVI.    Green,  White,  and  Orange   226 

XXXVII.    What  Did  Redmond  Mean?   232 

XXV 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

XXXV1H.    Casement  and  the  Irish  Leaders   239 

XXXIX.    A  Romance  of  the  Sea   246 

XL.    Planning  a  Pogrom   253 

XLI.    The  Fatal  Order    262 

XLII.    The  O'Rahilly's  Ride   270 

XLIII.    The  Nine  Hours'  Conference   278 

XLIV.    The  Twenty-fourth  of  April   285 

XLV.    The  First  Blow   292 

XL VI.    In  Stephen's  Green   299 

XL VII.    The  Attack  on  the  Castle   306 

XL VIII.    At  Boland's  Mills   312 

XLIX.    The  Post  Office  Area    320 

L.    The  Four  Courts   326 

LI.    The  British  Scared   333 

LII.    Getting  to  Grips   340 

LIII.    The  Fighting  on  Tuesday   348 

LIV.  The  Battle  of  Mount  Street  Bridge  ....  355 

LV.    The  High  Flame  of  Courage   361 

LVI.  The  Murder  of  Sheehy-Skeffington    ....  369 

LVII.    Hoping  Against  Hope   379 

LVHI.    A  Grim  Night  Scene   388 

LIX.    The  Triumph  of  Defeat   393 

LX.    A  Dublin  Rebel's  Story   400 

LXI.    Other  Provincial  Centers   406 

LXII.    The  Blood-lust  of  the  English   412 

LXIII.    How  Casement  Died   426 

Appendix   437 

Index   443 


HISTORY  OF  THE 
SINN    FEIN    MOVEMENT  AND 
THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


/ 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN 
MOVEMENT  AND  THE  IRISH 
REBELLION  OF  1916 

CHAPTER  I 

Sinn  Fein  and  Education 

THE  bedrock  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy,  which  embraces 
every  phase  of  Irish  national  life  and  activity,  may 
fittingly  be  summed  up  in  the  following  words : 

National  self-development  secured  through  the  recognition  of  the 
duties  and  rights  of  citizenship  on  the  part  of  the  individual,  and 
with  the  aid  and  support  of  all  movements  originating  from  within 
Ireland,  which,  instinct  with  national  tradition,  do  not  look  outside 
Ireland  for  the  accomplishment  of  their  aims. 

This  was  the  policy  outlined  at  the  First  National  Council 
Convention,  held  at  the  Rotunda,  in  Dublin,  on  Tuesday, 
November  28,  1905,  under  the  presidency  of  Edward  Martyn, 
at  which  the  programme  of  the  men  who  later  became  known 
as  the  Sinn  Feiners  was  promulgated  by  Arthur  Griffith. 

Many  volumes  might  be  written  if  a  full  and  complete 
exposition  of  this  policy  were  attempted,  and  considerable 
space  must  be  devoted  to  it  in  order  that  its  significance  may 
be  properly  apprehended.  It  was,  and  is,  a  policy  unique 
in  its  comprehensiveness,  and  it  is  also  the  best  possible 
statement  of  the  case  for  Ireland,  since  it  embodies  the  facts 
of  and  reasons  for  Ireland's  aspirations  for  freedom,  and  at 
the  same  time  combines  the  best  thought  of  many  ages 
with  the  advances  made  by  modern  political  and  national 
economy. 

The  first  basic  principle  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  is  that  the 
Irish  are  a  free  people,  and  must  possess  the  rights  of  a  free 


2    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


people  until,  of  their  own  free  will,  they  renounce  them. 
A  glance  at  the  history  of  Ireland  shows  conclusively  that 
this  renunciation  has  never  yet  been  made. 

If  we  accept  this  principle  of  government  only  with  popu- 
lar consent,  we  are  forced  also  to  accept  its  necessary  corol- 
lary, namely,  that  any  external  power  that  attempts  to 
control,  or  does  actually  and  by  force  control,  the  free  actions 
of  a  people,  is  a  tyranny.  We  are  also  forced  to  accept  the 
further  principle  that  it  is  the  first  duty  of  the  citizen  to 
oppose  and  seek  to  end  that  tyranny.  Such  may  well  be 
termed  the  Sinn  Fein  philosophy. 

Coming  now  to  the  application  of  this  policy  to  the  case 
of  Ireland,  the  Sinn  Feiners  pointed  out  that  the  tyranny 
(according  to  the  foregoing  definition)  that  oppressed  Ireland 
was  the  English  Government;  and  it  was  their  contention 
that  this  government,  to  prevent  its  real  character  from  being 
apprehended  by  the  people,  forced  an  educational  system 
upon  the  people  designed  to  make  them  oblivious  of  their 
rights  as  men  and  their  duties  as  citizens. 

All  departments  of  education  in  Ireland — primary,  second- 
ary and  university, — were  directly  controlled  by  the  British 
Government  through  Boards  consisting  exclusively  of  its  own 
nominees.  These  Boards  fixed  the  courses  and  text-books, 
and  clung  to  an  educational  policy  adverse  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  Irish  people  in  the  teeth  of  the  universal  criticism 
and  opposition  of  Irish  educationists.  The  language  of  Ire- 
land, the  history  of  Ireland,  the  economics  of  Ireland,  the 
industrial  possibilities  of  Ireland,  the  rights  of  Ireland,  found 
no  place  in  their  curricula.  The  only  primary  school  system  in 
Ireland  that  recognized  Ireland  was  that  of  the  Irish  Christian 
Brothers,  which  affected,  however,  but  a  comparatively  small 
portion  of  the  people  a. id  received  no  public  grant. 

The  primary  school  system  controlled  by  Government 
nominees  was,  as  a  system,  intended  to  perpetuate  that 
ignorance  of  Ireland  which  the  British  Penal  Laws  had  once 
made  legally  compulsory.  The  pupil  was  not  taught,  as  he  is 
in  every  country  elsewhere,  to  look  out  upon  the  world  from 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  3 


his  own  country,  and  that  his  first  duty  is  to  his  native  land. 
The  system  in  force  taught  him  that  he  had  no  country,  and 
therefore  no  national  duty  and  no  national  standard  of  com- 
parison and  value.  He  was  forced  to  accept  instead  the 
standard  of  England. 

The  secondary  system  of  education,  controlled  also  by  a 
Board  of  British  nominees,  was  likewise  designed  to  prevent 
the  higher  intelligence  of  Ireland  from  performing  its  duty 
to  the  Irish  race  and  state.  In  other  countries  secondary 
education  supplies  the  leaders  in  industry  and  commerce. 
Its  real  object  is  to  fit  persons  of  average  ability  to  play  that 
part  in  the  national  economy  of  their  own  country  for  which 
they  have  special  aptitude.  From  the  national  standpoint, 
education  is  an  investment  on  which  the  pupil  is  later  to 
pay  interest  by  contributing  his  efforts  towards  the  economic 
development  of  his  country.  But  vocational  training  to  fit 
young  Irishmen  to  play  their  part  in  the  development  of  their 
own  country  was  unknown.  Everything  that  might  awaken 
their  interest  in  Ireland  was  rigidly  barred.  British  policy 
demanded  that  their  thoughts  be  turned  towards  England, 
and  that  their  horizon  be  an  English  one.  In  Ireland  second- 
ary education  was  so  framed  as  to  cause  an  aversion  from 
and  a  contempt  for  "trade"  in  the  heads  of  young  Irishmen, 
and  to  fix  their  eyes,  like  the  fool's,  on  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
The  system  in  vogue  drew  away  from  industrial  pursuits 
those  who  were  best  fitted  for  them,  and  sent  them  to  be 
Civil  Servants  in  England,  or  to  swell  the  ranks  of  struggling 
clerkdom  in  Ireland.  An  industrial  Ireland  might  prove  a 
rival  of  England.  Although  Ireland  was  scandalously  over- 
taxed, as  was  attested  by  successive  English  Commissions; 
although  the  "equivalent  grant"  (which  entitled  Ireland  to 
an  increased  educational  appropriation  in  the  same  ratio  as 
English  and  Scottish  appropriations  for  education  were  in- 
creased) was  consistently  withheld,  England  strained  every 
effort  to  cultivate  the  fiction  that  the  Irish  owed  their  educa- 
tion to  a  great  act  of  grace  on  the  part  of  the  English  people. 
The  fact  was  that  Ireland  was  paying  an  exorbitant  price  for 


4     HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


an  education  that  rendered  her  sons  useless  at  home.  And, 
instead  of  inculcating  a  sense  of  loyalty  towards  her  and  an 
appreciation  of  her  sacrifices,  this  education  was  deliberately 
planned  to  unfit  young  Irishmen  to  repay  their  debt  to  their 
own  country,  which  was,  however,  forced  to  pay  dearly  for 
her  own  degradation. 

When  England  appointed  foreigners  (as  she  invariably  did) 
to  important  posts  in  Ireland,  her  excuse  was  that  no  Irish- 
man knew  enough  of  that  particular  department  of  the 
business  of  his  own  country  to  qualify  him  for  the  post. 
Thus,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  constantly  justified  its 
wholesale  importations  of  foreigners  on  the  ground  that 
secondary  education  in  Ireland  produced  no  men  qualified 
for  the  post.  One  British  Government  Department  excused 
itself  by  casting  the  blame  on  another. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  university  education  in 
Ireland  was  regarded  by  the  "classes"  as  a  means  of  washing 
away  the  original  sin  of  Irish  birth.  It  was  based  on  the 
inversion  of  Aristotle's  dictum,  as  indeed  the  three  systems  of 
education  in  Ireland  were.  The  young  men  who  went  to 
Trinity  College  were  told  by  Aristotle  that  the  end  of  educa- 
tion is  to  make  men  patriots,  and  by  the  professors  of  Trinity 
that  Aristotle  was  not  to  be  taken  literally  in  Ireland.  Uni- 
versity education  in  Ireland  encumbered  the  intellect  by 
imparting  knowledge  whirl)  led  and  pointed  nowhere;  it 
c  hilled  the  imagination  and  enthusiasm  by  cutting  the  young 
Irishman  away  from  his  traditions;  by  denying  him  a  country, 
it  debased  his  soul,  while  it  enervated  his  body  by  denying 
him  physical  culture.  If  a  comparison  be  required,  imagine 
what  would  happen  if  everything  that  breathed  of  American 
history,  of  the  men  and  the  women  who  made  America  the 
great  nation  she  is  to-day,  of  America's  fight  for  freedom,  and 
of  America's  men  of  literature,  science,  and  art,  were  taken 
away  from  the  schoolbooks  of  the  American  nation,  and  the 
heroic  tales  and  deeds  of  some  other  nation  substituted  in  its 
place !  If  this  were  done,  how  many  generations  would  elapse 
before  the  extinction  of  that  spirit  of  patriotism  and  devotion, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  5 


of  America  first  and  last  and  all  the  time,  in  short,  of  Sinn 
Fein,  which  is  to-day  so  distinguishing  a  feature  of  the  people 
of  this  country? 

Yet  the  system  outlined  above  is  the  one  on  which  the 
education  of  the  children  of  Ireland  has  proceeded  during  the 
three-quarters  of  a  century  that  has  elapsed  since  education 
was  a  felony.  The  fact  that  even  this  eviscerated  system  was 
won  only  as  the  result  of  prolonged  and  bitter  agitation  is  a 
sufficient  commentary  on  English  rule.  This  is  a  system 
which,  as  Aristotle  says,  ruins  the  individual  and  eventually 
the  nation.  If  he  had  lived  in  Ireland,  Aristotle  would  have 
been  a  seditious  person  in  the  eyes  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment, which  now  makes  him  subserve  its  aims  by  standing 
him  on  his  head.  Just  as  we  learn  our  duty  to  society  around 
us  through  the  medium  of  the  family,  our  obligations  as 
citizens  teach  us  our  duties  as  men.  Yet  the  English  believe 
that,  by  teaching  disloyalty  and  treachery  to  motherland, 
they  can  exact  from  Ireland  a  loyalty  for  an  Empire  which, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  not  merely  mythical  for  Irishmen,  stands  in 
their  eyes  as  the  agent  of  monstrous  oppression,  unparalleled 
cruelty,  and  savage  injustice  and  as  the  mouthpiece  of  im- 
placable hatred  for  everything  pertaining  to  the  Gael.  Peace 
between  the  islands  through  such  a  policy  can  be  won  only 
at  the  price  of  the  entire  destruction  of  Gaelic  civilization 
and  all  who  uphold  it.  If  empires  are  entitled  to  wreak  such 
vengeance  on  opponents  of  their  policy,  let  it  at  least  be  so 
stated  frankly,  and  let  us  at  least  be  rid  of  the  hypocrisy  with 
which  the  policy  is  now  disguised. 

The  problem  before  the  Sinn  Feiners  was  how  to  remedy 
this  state  of  affairs  in  education.  They  took  the  stand  that, 
if  the  control  of  primary  education  was  not  voluntarily  trans- 
ferred from  the  British  Government  to  the  Irish  people,  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  Irish  people  to  take  over  the  primary 
education  system  themselves.  It  was  pointed  out  that  they 
could  do  this  in  the  first  place  by  transferring,  where  possible, 
the  pupils  of  the  misnamed  ' ' National* '  Schools  to  the 
schools  of  the  Irish  Christian  Brothers,  and,  where  this  was 


6     HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


not  practicable,  by  founding  voluntary  schools,  sustained  in 
part  by  the  contributions  of  the  parents  and  in  part  from 
a  National  Education  Fund  subscribed  to  annually  by  the 
Irish  people  throughout  the  world.  That  this  was  not  im- 
possible, was  shown  by  the  fact  that  Hungary  had  done  it 
forty  years  before,  and  that  Poland  had  followed  suit.  The 
result  was  shown  in  the  manner  in  which  Hungary  threw  off 
the  Austrian  chain,  and  the  manner  in  which  Poland,  prior 
to  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  was  fast  loosening  the  hold  of  the 
Russian  autocracy  on  its  national  life. 

At  the  same  time  it  was  not  forgotten  that  the  Irish  people 
could  not  afford  to  withdraw  in  a  body  their  school  children 
from  the  "National"  Schools,  for  they  would  not  have  had 
sufficient  funds  in  hand  to  cope  with  the  educational  crisis 
thus  created.  The  plan  that  was  formulated,  and  that  was 
carried  out  in  part  and  would  have  been  carried  to  a  finish 
had  not  the  war  intervened,  was  more  practicable.  This  plan 
provided  for  a  period  of  educating  public  opinion  on  the  vital 
importance  of  the  matter,  of  preparation  for  coping  with  the 
demand  for  a  really  national  system  of  education.  At  the 
end  of  this  period,  should  control  of  the  primary  system  still 
be  withheld,  then  the  Sinn  Feiners  would  order  a  school 
strike,  as  the  Nationalists  of  Poland  had  done,  and  replace 
the  old  system  by  one  that  would  teach  the  Irish  child  to 
glory  in  his  country  and  desire  to  serve  her. 

As  to  the  Irishing  of  the  secondary  system,  the  Sinn  Feiners 
depended  with  confidence  on  the  sympathy  and  support  of 
the  clergy  and  especially  on  the  Irish  Christian  Brothers,  who 
were  expected  to  ignore  the  Intermediate  Board  and  substitute 
a  system  devised  by  themselves  in  conjunction  with  the 
Gaelic  League  and  Irish  educationists.  The  Irish  Christian 
Brothers  had  been  the  pioneers  in  primary  education  from 
the  moment  when  teaching  in  Ireland  ceased  to  be  illegal. 
There  was  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  they  would  be  ready  to 
gain  an  additional  distinction  by  pioneering  a  secondary  sys- 
tem of  education  such  as  Ireland  needed.  It  was  equally 
certain  that  the  Irish  nation,  coming  into  the  dawn  of  a  new 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  7 


life,  would  see  to  it  that  they  did  not  suffer  as  a  consequence 
of  their  patriotism. 

As  to  the  university  system  two  solutions  were  offered. 
One  was  the  nationalizing  of  Trinity  College,  the  other  the 
establishment  of  a  national  university  by  the  Irish  people. 
By  a  national  university  was  meant  a  democratic  university, 
to  whose  halls  wealth  would  not  be  the  only  passport.  The 
Sinn  Feiners  recognized  the  fact  that,  if  they  decided  on  the 
foundation  of  an  Irish  university  (as  they  eventually  did 
decide)  on  the  same  lines  as  that  founded  by  the  patriots  of 
Hungary,  they  would  have  to  do  as  the  Hungarians  did,  and 
largely  support  it  out  of  endowments  made  by  their  sym- 
pathizers. They  believed  sufficiently  in  the  patriotism  of 
Irishmen  abroad  to  know  that  they  would  help  to  endow  such 
a  university.  They  knew  that  within  Ireland  they  would 
secure  endowments  from  Irishmen  and  groups  of  Irishmen. 
The  fact  that  the  Irish  National  University  on  the  lines 
suggested  was  soon  after  endowed  and  established,  and  that 
it  has  begun  to  compete  successfully  with  the  best  seats  of 
learning  in  Europe,  is  the  best  possible  proof  of  the  soundness 
of  this  portion  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy.  It  is  not  perhaps 
without  significance  that  Professor  Eoin  MacNeill  was  a 
member  of  the  university,  and  that  among  his  colleagues 
was  Thomas  MacDonagh,  one  of  the  seven  martyred  signers 
of  the  Irish  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  Sinn  Fein  leaders  recognized  that  the  only  way  of 
dealing  with  this  problem  was  through  the  Irish  people  them- 
selves, and  that  the  replacing  of  the  denationalizing  system 
of  education  in  Ireland  by  a  nationalizing  system  rested  with 
the  men  and  women  of  Ireland,  and  not  with  the  British 
Government.  If  it  was  worth  having,  it  was  worth  making 
sacrifices  to  obtain,  and  they  were  confident  that,  if  the  same 
spirit  which  prevailed  in  Hungary,  Finland,  and  Poland  —  the 
spirit  of  self-reliance  —  were  evoked  in  Ireland,  they  could 
not  fail. 


CHAPTER  II 
Sinn  Fein  and  the  Industrial  Problem 

NEXT  in  order  to  the  education  question  in  Ireland 
came  the  problem  of  the  industries,  and  the  greatest 
of  these  was,  and  still  should  be,  farming.  A  glance 
at  the  economic  history  of  Ireland,  however,  revealed  the 
fact  that  farming  in  Ireland  was  rapidly  resolving  itself  into 
the  cattle  trade  —  a  condition  in  which  most  people  acquiesced 
unthinkingly,  not  apparently  being  aware  that  around  the 
industrial  situation  centers  fifty  per  cent  of  the  Irish  "ques- 
tion." While  volumes  might  be  written  on  this  phase  of  the 
subject  alone,  it  is  not  the  intention  here  to  do  more  than  to 
enter  into  a  brief  exposition  of  the  matter  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  Sinn  Feiners  handled  it. 

The  tilled  land  in  Ireland  had  decreased  by  one-fourth 
during  the  previous  generation.  This  simple  statement  has  a 
terrible  bearing  on  recent  history.  Over  a  million  acres  that 
were  crop-bearing  in  1871  had  been  converted  into  grazing 
ground  before  1905,  and  the  cattle  trade  that  had  absorbed 
this  was  threatened  with  destruction  by  the  competition  of 
the  Argentine  and  Canada.  In  this  extremity  we  find,  in 
the  period  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  County 
Councils  in  Ireland  devoting  some  of  their  funds  to  the 
encouragement  of  cattle  raising,  and  the  Royal  Dublin  Society 
allocating  funds  for  the  same  purpose.  It  was  not  difficult 
to  understand  the  actions  of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society  —  an 
institution  which,  since  the  extinction  of  the  Irish  Parliament, 
has  been  one  of  the  agencies  through  which  the  British  Gov- 
ernment works  out  its  will  in  Ireland.  Since  the  time  when 
Lord  Carlisle,  on  behalf  of  the  British  Government,  issued  an 
order  to  discourage  tillage  in  Ireland,  the  Royal  Dublin 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  9 


Society  had  done  yeoman  service  in  helping  to  sweep  the 
people  from  the  soil. 

The  perverted  educational  system  may  account  for  the 
action  of  the  County  Councils.  The  fact  which  apparently 
had  been  forgotten,  but  which  the  Sinn  Feiners  again  forced 
into  the  domain  of  practical  politics,  was  that,  if  the  soil  of 
Ireland  was  again  to  be  brought  under  cultivation  —  and  it 
was  vital  that  this  should  be  done  —  it  was  necessary  that 
the  County  Councils,  which  were  then  by  premiums  encourag- 
ing grazing,  should  withdraw  these  premiums  and  devote 
them  to  tillage-farming.  The  Sinn  Feiners  held  that  an 
agricultural  and  manufacturing  union  was  necessary  in  the 
country's  interest  —  a  union  of  manufacturers  and  farmers, 
classes  which,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  persisted  in  being 
unfriendly  to  each  other  and  failed  to  realize  their  inter- 
dependence. 

The  farmer  was  indifferent  towards  the  industrial  revival, 
failing  to  realize  the  increased  market  an  Ireland  with  a 
manufacturing  arm  meant  to  the  agriculturist;  and  the 
manufacturer  was  indifferent  to  the  agricultural  question, 
failing  to  see  that  an  extension  of  agriculture  —  the  extension 
of  tillage  —  meant  the  extension  of  the  market  for  his  produce. 
Their  failure  to  grasp  this  rudimentary  principle  of  political 
economy  is  in  itself  a  sufficiently  damning  indictment  of  the 
Irish  educational  system.  It  was  and  continued  to  be  one 
of  the  worst  anomalies  in  Ireland  that  the  manufacturing 
population  should  be  largely  subsisting  on  foreign  food. 
There  is  no  genuine  reason  for  this  state  of  affairs  in  a  country 
capable  of  feeding  at  least  fifteen  times  its  present  population. 
It  is  due  to  the  ignorance  of  elementary  economics  and  to  the 
lack  of  a  truly  Irish  Board  of  Agriculture  to  give  the  necessary 
guidance  and  lead.  It  came  as  a  happy  omen  at  the  opening 
of  the  Sinn  Fein  campaign  that  the  industrial  conference  in 
Cork  had  just  declared  with  practical  unanimity  against  the 
British-made  economic  policy  which  had  been  thrust  upon 
the  country  to  its  commercial  injury.  Lest  there  be  those 
who  are  under  the  impression  that  this  condition  of  economic 


10    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINK  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


affairs  and  the  evils  that  arose  out  of  them  be  laid  unjustly 
at  the  door  of  the  British  Government,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
refer  them  to  any  history  of  Ireland,  where  they  will  read  the 
many  British  statutes  that  were  made  for  the  express  and 
declared  purpose  of  crippling  and  putting  out  of  existence 
every  vestige  of  industry  in  Ireland,  and  turning  the  entire 
country  into  one  huge  cattle  ranch.  England's  gain  from  this 
policy  is  very  evident,  since,  as  a  manufacturing  country,  her 
chief  desire  is  to  crush  industrial  rivals  and  to  obtain  an 
abundance  of  cheap  food. 

The  anglicization  of  the  Irish  mind  is  best  exhibited  in  its 
attitude  towards  economics.  The  system  of  economics  which 
Adam  Smith  and  his  successors  had  invented  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  control  of  the  world's  markets  for  England  was 
accepted  by  the  Irish  people,  prior  to  the  advent  of  Sinn 
Fein,  as  the  quintessence  of  wisdom.  It  mattered  not  that 
all  Europe  had  rejected  it  —  that  the  United  States  of 
America,  the  most  progressive  country  in  the  world,  had 
also  definitely  rejected  it.  England  still  held  on,  and  does 
so  to  the  present  day,  and  its  application  is  responsible  for 
much  of  the  current  social  misery  and  unrest.  And  because 
England  held  on,  Ireland,  under  the  British  system  of  educa- 
tion, perforce  accepted  the  "  as-good-and-as-cheap  "  shibboleth 
as  a  gospel.  That,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  with  the  rest  of  the 
similar  impositions  and  humbug  of  the  system,  would  have 
to  be  bundled  out  of  the  country. 

Arthur  Griffith,  the  founder  and  expounder  of  the  Sinn  Fein 
policy,  was,  in  economics,  largely  the  follower  of  the  man 
who  was  responsible  for  the  formation  of  the  mighty  con- 
federation which  was  fast  becoming  England's  serious  rival 
for  the  trade  supremacy  of  the  world — Germany.  The 
name  of  Frederick  List  is  a  famous  one  throughout  the 
civilized  world,  and  his  works  are  text-books  of  economic 
science  outside  Ireland.  In  Ireland,  before  the  rise  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  movement,  his  works  were  unheard  of  and  his  name 
unknown.  Germany  had  hailed  List  as  the  Preserver  of  the 
Fatherland,  and  Louis  Kossuth  bestowed  on  him  the  title  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  11 


the  Economic  Father  of  the  Nations.  The  Sinn  Feiners 
believed  there  was  room  for  him  also  in  Ireland  and  in  her 
educational  system. 

Following  List,  the  Sinn  Feiners  held  that  the  Irish  people 
should  reject  that  so-called  political  economy  which  neither 
recognized  the  principle  of  nationality  nor  took  into  con- 
sideration the  satisfaction  of  its  interests;  which  regarded 
chiefly  the  mere  exchangeable  value  of  things  without  taking 
into  consideration  the  mental  and  political,  the  present  and 
the  future  interests  and  the  productive  powers  of  the  nation; 
which  ignored  the  nature  and  character  of  social  labor  and 
the  operation  of  the  union  of  powers  in  their  higher  conse- 
quences, and  considered  private  industry  only  as  it  would 
develop  itself  under  a  free  interchange  with  the  whole  human 
race  were  it  not  divided  into  separate  nations.  They  accepted, 
with  List,  the  theory  that  between  the  individual  and  hu- 
manity stands,  and  must  continue  to  stand,  one  great  fact. 
This  fact  is  the  Nation,  with  its  special  language  and  litera- 
ture, with  its  peculiar  origin  and  history,  with  its  special 
manners  and  customs,  laws  and  institutions,  with  the  claims 
of  all  these  for  existence,  independence,  perfection,  and  con- 
tinuance for  the  future,  and  with  its  separate  territory;  a 
society  which,  united  by  a  thousand  ties  of  mind  and  interests, 
forms  one  independent  whole,  which  recognizes  the  law  of 
right  for  and  within  itself,  which  in  its  united  character  is 
distinct  from  other  societies  of  a  similar  kind,  and  conse- 
quently can  only,  under  the  existing  conditions  of  the  world, 
maintain  self-existence  and  independence  by  its  own  power 
and  resources.  As  the  individual  obtains  mental  culture, 
power  of  production,  security  and  prosperity,  chiefly  by  means 
of  the  nation  and  in  the  nation,  so  is  the  civilization  of  the 
human  race  only  conceivable  and  possible  by  means  of  the 
civilization  and  development  of  individual  nations.  But,  as 
there  are  among  men  infinite  differences  in  condition  and 
circumstance,  so  there  are  in  nations.  Some  are  strong,  some 
are  weak,  some  are  highly  civilized,  some  are  half  civilized; 
but  in  all  states,  as  in  the  unit,  the  impulse  of  self-preservation 


12    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  the  desire  for  improvement  exist  in  a  greater  or  smaller 
degree. 

The  Sinn  Feiners  held  it  the  task  of  national  politics  to 
insure  existence  and  continuance  to  the  nation,  to  make  the 
weak  strong  and  the  civilized  more  civilized.  They  held  it 
the  task  of  national  economics  to  accomplish  the  economic 
development  of  the  nation,  and  fit  it  for  admission  into  the 
one  universal  society  of  the  future.  They  took  as  their 
definition  of  the  normal  nation,  such  as  they  desired  to  make 
Ireland,  a  nation  possessing  a  common  language  and  literature, 
a  territory  endowed  with  manifold  natural  resources,  with 
convenient  frontiers  and  a  numerous  population;  a  nation 
where  agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce  and  navigation 
would  all  be  developed  proportionately,  and  where  arts  and 
sciences,  educational  establishments,  and  universal  culture 
would  have  an  equal  footing  with  material  production.  Its 
constitution,  laws,  and  institutions  would  afford  to  its  citizens 
a  high  degree  of  security  and  liberty,  and  would  promote 
religion,  morality,  and  prosperity.  It  must  possess  sufficient 
power  to  defend  its  independence  and  to  promote  its  foreign 
commerce.  They  held  that  in  the  economy  of  Adam  Smith, 
and  particularly  as  it  was  applied  to  Ireland,  there  was  no 
place  for  the  soul  of  a  nation;  to  him  the  associations  of  the 
past  possessed  no  value.  In  the  economy  of  List  the  nation 
not  only  possessed  a  place,  but  the  highest  place,  and  that 
is  why  it  appealed  so  powerfully  to  the  leaders  of  the  Sinn 
Fein  movement. 

In  Ireland,  on  the  other  hand,  the  people  had  been  taught 
by  British  Education  Boards  and  British  officials  that  the 
destiny  of  Ireland  was  to  be  the  fruitful  mother  of  flocks  and 
herds,  and  act  as  a  handmaid  of  England;  that  it  was  not 
necessary  for  the  Irish  people  to  pay  attention  to  their 
manufacturing  arm,  since  their  agricultural  arm  was  all- 
sufficient.  This,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  was  a  fallacy  that 
dissolved  before  reflection;  but  it  was  a  fallacy  that  had 
passed  for  truth  in  Ireland.  They  replied  that  a  nation 
could  not  promote  and  further  its  civilization,  its  prosperity, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  13 

and  its  social  progress  by  exchanging  agricultural  products  for 
manufactured  goods  as  efficiently  as  by  establishing  a  manu- 
facturing power  of  its  own.  A  merely  agricultural  nation 
could  never  develop  to  any  extent  a  home  or  a  foreign  com- 
merce, with  inland  means  of  transport  and  foreign  navigation, 
increase  its  population  in  due  proportion  to  their  well-being, 
or  make  notable  progress  in  its  moral,  intellectual,  social,  and 
political  development:  it  would  never  acquire  important 
political  power,  or  be  placed  in  a  position  to  influence  the 
civilization  and  progress  of  less  advanced  nations.  A  mere 
agricultural  state  was  infinitely  less  powerful  than  an  agricul- 
tural manufacturing  state.  The  former  was  always  economi- 
cally and  politically  dependent  on  those  foreign  nations  which 
took  from  it  agricultural  products  in  exchange  for  manu- 
factured articles.  It  could  not  determine  how  much  it  should 
produce,  but  would  have  to  wait  and  see  how  much  others 
would  buy  from  it.  The  agricultural  manufacturing  states, 
on  the  contrary,  could  produce  for  themselves  large  quantities 
of  raw  materials  and  provisions,  and  supply  merely  the 
deficiency  from  importation.  The  purely  agricultural  nations 
were  thus  dependent  for  the  power  of  effecting  sales  on  the 
chances  of  a  more  or  less  bountiful  harvest  in  the  agricultural 
manufacturing  nations.  They  had,  moreover,  to  compete  in 
their  sales  with  other  purely  agricultural  nations,  whereby 
the  power  of  sale  in  itself  was  rendered  uncertain.  An 
agricultural  nation  was  as  a  man  with  one  arm  who  made  use 
of  an  arm  belonging  to  another  person,  but  could  not,  of 
course,  be  sure  of  having  it  always  available.  An  agricul- 
tural manufacturing  nation  was  a  man  who  had  two  arms  of 
his  own  always  at  his  own  disposal. 

The  Sinn  Feiners  appealed  to  the  Irish  people  to  get  rid  of 
the  fallacious  idea  that  the  agricultural  and  manufacturing 
interests  were  opposed.  They  declared  they  were  necessary 
one  to  the  other,  and  that  one  could  not  be  injured  without 
the  other  suffering  hurt.  They  asked  the  Irish  people  to 
clear  their  minds  of  the  pernicious  idea  that  they  were  not 
entitled  or  called  upon  to  give  preferential  aid  to  the  manu- 


14    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

facturing  industries  of  their  own  country.  They  declared 
that,  if  that  idea  were  not  met  and  combated,  there  would 
be  an  end  to  all  hope  of  the  development  of  an  Irish  manu- 
facturing arm,  and  of  the  hope  of  Ireland  coming  into  the 
birthright  of  her  nationality.  They  told  the  people  that  only 
in  the  soil  of  general  prosperity  does  the  national  spirit  strike 
its  root,  produce  fine  blossoms  and  rich  fruit;  that  only  from 
the  unity  of  material  interests  does  mental  power  arise,  and 
again  from  both  of  them  national  power. 

Therefore,  they  made  it  their  declaration  that  it  was  the 
policy  of  the  Sinn  Fein  National  Council  to  bring  about  that 
unity  of  material  interests  which  produces  national  strength, 
to  convince  the  manufacturer  that  every  improvement  in 
agriculture  would  increase  his  home  market,  and  the  agricul- 
turist that  every  extension  of  the  manufacturing  industry 
would  promote  his  welfare.  In  short,  to  convince  both  that 
there  could  be  no  permanent  prosperity  for  either  unless  the 
nation  as  a  whole  was  prosperous.  The  logical  outcome  of 
this  teaching  was  that  the  Irish  people  must  offer  their 
producers  protection  where  protection  was  necessary. 


CHAPTER  III 


Sinn  Fein  and  Protection 

PROTECTION,  as  defined  by  the  Sinn  Feiners,  did 
not  mean  the  exclusion  of  foreign  competition;  it 
meant  rendering  the  native  manufacturer  equal  to 
meeting  foreign  competition.  They  did  not  advise  that  the 
Irish  people  should  pay  a  higher  profit  to  any  Irish  manu- 
facturer, but  that  they  should  not  stand  by  and  see  him 
crushed  by  mere  weight  of  foreign  capital.  They  took  the 
stand  that,  if  an  Irish  manufacturer  could  not  produce  an 
article  as  cheaply  as  an  English  or  other  foreign  manufacturer 
only  because  his  foreign  competitor  had  at  present  larger 
resources  at  his  disposal,  it  was  the  first  duty  of  the  Irish 
nation  to  accord  protection  to  that  Irish  manufacturer.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  Irish  manufacturer  could  produce  as 
cheaply,  but  charged  an  enhanced  price,  that  man  deserved 
no  support;  he  was,  on  the  contrary,  to  be  branded  as  a 
swindler. 

It  was  held  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Irish  public  bodies,  in 
whose  hands  the  expenditure  of  $20,000,000  annually  was 
placed,  to  pay  an  enhanced  price  for  Irish-manufactured 
articles,  when  the  manufacturers  were  able  to  show  that  they 
could  not  produce  them  at  the  lesser  price;  that  was  Protec- 
tion. This  was  also  the  duty  of  the  individual.  But  it  was 
contrary  to  the  principle  of  Protection,  and  to  the  interests 
of  the  country,  that  a  manufacturer  in  Ireland  who  could 
produce  as  cheaply  as  his  foreign  competitor  should  receive 
an  enhanced  price.  The  movement  was  one  designed  pri- 
marily to  give  back  to  Ireland  her  manufacturing  arm,  not 
to  make  fortunes  for  dishonest  manufacturers.  The  ques- 
tion as  to  the  manner  in  which  this  was  to  be  accom- 
plished was  considered  very  carefully  and  thoroughly  by  the 


16    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Sinn  Fein  leaders,  and  the  plan  eventually  decided  on  was 
one  that  proved  to  be  remarkably  fruitful  of  results,  and 
would,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  have  achieved  complete  success 
had  the  war  not  intervened. 

It  was  decided  that  the  solution  of  the  problem  lay  primarily 
with  the  individual,  since  the  Irish  people  were  powerless  to 
influence  the  general  administration  of  their  country;  secondly, 
through  the  County,  Urban,  and  District  Councils  and  Poor 
Law  Guardians;  thirdly,  by  endeavoring  to  secure  control 
of  the  inefficient  bodies  known  as  Harbor  Commissioners; 
fourthly,  by  stimulating  the  Irish  manufacturers  and  the 
Irish  people  to  industrial  enterprise;  and,  fifthly,  by  inviting 
Irish-American  capital  to  aid  in  Irish  development,  on  a 
purely  commercial  basis. 

In  the  first  place  it  was  pointed  out  to  every  individual 
that,  except  where  fraud  was  attempted,  it  was  his  or  her 
duty  to  pay,  if  necessary,  an  enhanced  price  for  Irish  goods, 
and  to  use,  wherever  possible,  none  but  Irish  goods.  As  to 
the  Irish  elective  bodies,  which  controlled  the  expenditure  of 
Irish  local  taxation,  their  duty  lay  along  the  same  lines  as 
that  of  the  individual.  The  duty  of  the  Irish  harbor  bodies 
was  to  arrange  the  incidence  of  port  dues  so  that  they  should 
fall  most  heavily  on  manufactured  goods  entering  the  country, 
and  to  keep  and  publish  B  table  of  all  goods  imported  and 
to  whom  consigned.  In  all  these  respects  the  Irish  Harbor 
Boards  had  hitherto  failed.  These  boards  were  in  most 
cases  composed  of  English  shipping  representatives  and  Irish 
importers  of  foreign  goods,  whose  interests  were  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  general  interests  of  the  Irish  nation.  A  short 
time  before  the  promulgation  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy,  and 
only  after  considerable  agitation,  the  Dublin  Port  and  Docks 
Board  had  been  driven  to  publish  an  annual  return  of  the 
foreign  goods  imported  into  the  capital  of  Ireland  by  sea, 
and  the  return  had  appalled  all  who  read  it.  The  Cork  and 
other  Harbor  Boards  refused  to  follow  the  example  of  Dublin, 
thus  publicly  proclaiming  themselves  tools  of  England  in  her 
frantic  efforts  to  conceal  the  true  economic  condition  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  17 


Ireland  from  the  Irish  people.  The  Sinn  Feiners  submitted 
the  question  to  the  people,  and  asked  them  if  they  were 
going  to  tolerate  this  anti-Irish  action  of  supposedly  Irish 
Boards.  They  said  that  the  Irish  people  had  a  right  to  know 
what  foreign  goods  were  being  imported  into  every  part  of 
Ireland,  and  who  it  was  that  received  them.  In  other  words, 
they  wanted  to  know  what  it  was  open  to  every  citizen  of  a 
free  country  to  know,  but  the  information  was  insolently 
refused  them  by  Boards  of  English  nominees.  The  Sinn 
Feiners  demanded  that  the  port  taxation  be  removed  from 
raw  materials  and  placed  on  manufactured  goods.  They 
were  told  that  this  taxation  was  so  small  as  to  be  inappre- 
ciable. Small  it  certainly  was,  but  not  inappreciable.  This 
was  well  demonstrated  when  it  was  sought  to  have  the 
incidence  of  port  taxation  altered  in  Dublin,  and  the  Port 
and  Docks  Board,  so  far  from  considering  the  matter  inap- 
preciable or  insignificant,  fought  as  fiercely  as  ever  it  fought 
to  prevent  increased  dues  being  placed  upon  manufactured 
goods  brought  into  the  port  of  Dublin.  This  increase  would 
have  been  small  indeed,  but  it  would  have  given  to  Ireland 
the  principle  of  protection,  and  that  was  the  end  sought. 

Further,  the  Sinn  Feiners  held  that  the  Irish  Harbor  Boards 
must  be  manned  for  Ireland  by  men  who  desired  to  benefit 
Ireland,  not  by  shipping  agents  of  English  firms  and  im- 
porters; that  a  general  scheme  of  port  taxation  would  have 
to  be  adopted  throwing  the  bulk  of  the  port  dues  on  manu- 
factured goods,  and  a  perfect  tally  kept  at  all  Irish  ports 
of  such  goods,  whence  they  came  and  to  whom  they  were 
consigned,  and  that  this  tally  should  be  published  each 
month.  They  declared  that,  once  this  was  done,  the  least 
imaginative  of  the  people  would  be  forced  to  realize  what 
was  taking  place  in  the  country  industrially.  This  realization 
would  doubtless  spur  them  to  support  their  own  industries, 
and  would  possibly  induce  them  to  invest  their  earnings  in 
the  industrial  enterprises  of  their  own  country. 

Regarding  the  introduction  of  foreign  capital,  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  state  that  the  Sinn  Feiners  did  not  want  British 


18    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


capital,  which  would  forge  a  new  link  in  the  chain  binding 
them  to  England.  What  they  did  ask  for  was  American  and 
Irish- American  capital.  They  were  careful  to  point  out  that 
they  did  not  ask,  nor  would  they  accept,  charity.  They 
declared  that  they  could  show  the  investor  that  Ireland  was 
a  good  field  for  his  money,  and  that  Ireland  was  something 
more  than  a  rich  and  unexploited  field.  As  briefly  as  possible, 
the  proposal  was  as  follows:  That  the  General  Council  of  the 
Councils  should  have  the  country  surveyed  with  a  view  to 
the  profitable  development  of  its  natural  resources,  and, 
having  had  the  cost  and  return  estimated  as  accurately  as 
possible,  should  then  invite  the  foreign  investor  to  look  into 
the  matter.  It  was  known  that  Ireland  could  offer  174,000,- 
000  tons  of  coal,  the  finest  fuel  in  Europe  and  practically 
untouched,  and  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  peat  to  operate 
the  factories,  and  that  the  investors  would  have  at  their 
disposal  all  the  facilities  possessed  by  the  County  Councils 
and  Rural  Councils  of  Ireland,  and  the  assistance  and  good- 
will of  the  Irish  people  in  turning  Irish  coal  and  peat  into 
gold.  The  investors  would  offer  in  return  profitable  employ- 
ment to  a  large  number  of  the  Irish  people,  and  an  enormous 
increase  of  strength  socially,  industrially,  and  politically. 

The  Protection  plank  in  the  Sinn  Fein  platform  was,  need- 
less to  say,  one  that  would  require  many  years  to  work  out. 
It  was  manifest,  on  the  face  of  it,  that  the  entire  programme 
was  the  work  for  a  generation.  Yet  the  manner  in  which 
the  industrial  policy  gained  root  and  spread  throughout  the 
country  soon  made  it  the  object  of  the  attention  of  the 
powers  that  were  opposed  to  the  manufacturing  interests  of 
Ireland.  Needless  to  say,  the  opposition  that  developed  was 
not  altogether  on  the  surface,  but  it  was  not  long,  neverthe- 
less, in  making  itself  felt. 

The  duty  of  the  individual,  placed  first  by  the  Sinn  Feiners, 
was  the  first  that  brought  results.  Throughout  the  country 
the  policy  of  asking  for  and  getting  goods  of  Irish  manu- 
facture was  acted  upon  by  the  people.  It  was  suddenly 
discovered  that  quite  a  number  of  articles  manufactured  at 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  19 


home  were  as  good  and  even  better  than  the  foreign-made 
article.  The  main  difference  was  that  the  foreign-made  arti- 
cle was  as  a  rule  widely  advertised,  while  the  Irish  product 
was  not,  the  reason  being  not  far  to  seek.  The  Sinn  Fein 
policy  had  the  effect  of  supplying  the  advertisement  for  the 
Irish  product,  with  the  result  that  there  was  an  immediate 
increase  in  the  sales  of  Irish-manufactured  goods.  This,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  resulted  in  a  decrease  in  the  sale  of  the 
foreign  article,  which,  in  its  turn,  had  the  effect  of  arousing 
the  opposition  of  English  manufacturers. 

As  a  concrete  instance,  mention  may  be  made  of  the  Irish 
tobacco  industry.  The  statement  made  by  the  Sinn  Feiners 
that  there  was  room  for  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  tobacco 
industry  in  Ireland  was  made  the  object  of  a  great  deal  of 
cheap  wit  in  the  British  press.  Yet,  under  the  inspiration  of 
the  Sinn  Fein  policy,  the  tobacco  industry  not  only  became 
an  established  fact,  but,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  became 
a  serious  rival  to  the  tobacco  trust  in  England  —  so  far,  that 
is,  as  the  sale  of  cigarettes,  pipe  tobacco,  and  cigars  in  Ireland 
was  concerned.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  smoking  of 
the  Irish  tobacco  at  the  outset  was  no  slight  test  of  patriotism, 
but,  with  increased  experience  in  the  preparation  and  curing 
of  the  dried  leaf,  it  was  not  long  before  the  Irish  article  be- 
came a  genuine  pleasure.  In  addition  to  this,  Irish  tobacco 
possesses  a  flavor  that  is  peculiar  to  itself,  and  which  soon 
became  a  habit  with  smokers. 

Foreign  opposition  was  not  slow  in  developing,  with  the 
result  that  efforts  were  made  to  delude  the  Irish  public  into 
purchasing  foreign  goods  as  Irish.  Irish  names  were  attached 
to  goods  that  never  saw  Ireland  until  they  were  brought  into 
the  country  ready  for  sale.  The  Sinn  Feiners  discovered  the 
fraud,  and  countered  by  the  establishment  of  the  Irish  trade- 
mark. A  sign  peculiar  to  Ireland  was  agreed  upon,  namely 
a  scroll  device  representing  the  legendary  Collar  of  Malachi, 
surrounded  by  the  words,  Deantha  i  nEirinn  (Made  in  Ire- 
land). The  use  of  this  sign  was  permitted  to  manufacturers 
who  could  show  that  their  goods  were  made  in  the  country, 


20    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  every  -  infringement  was  prosecuted  under  the  British 
Trades  Mark  Law,  the  Irish  people  being  for  once  able  to 
use  British  law  to  their  own  advantage.  The  Irish  trademark 
became  the  standard  of  value  in  Ireland,  and  the  policy  of 
the  Sinn  Feiners  was  soon  on  the  way  to  restore  to  Ireland 
her  lost  manufacturing  arm. 

There  was  one  other  thing  that  this  phase  of  the  movement 
accomplished.  It  brought  home  to  many  young  Irish  men 
and  women  the  lesson  of  practical  patriotism  and  paved  the 
way  for  a  further  advance.  It  taught  them  to  look  into  the 
possibilities  of  Ireland  from  more  than  one  point  of  view;  it 
demonstrated  the  fact  that  they  had  a  country  to  call  their 
own,  a  country  that  could  and  should  become  something 
more  than  a  cattle  ranch  or  an  interesting  stopping-off  place 
for  the  tourist.  Little  by  little  it  turned  their  minds  to  the 
fact  that  Ireland  possessed  vast  resources  of  mineral  wealth 
under  the  earth  and  unique  facilities  for  the  development  of 
industries  over  it.  It  imbued  them  with  the  pride  that  comes 
from  the  knowledge  that  the  country  of  one's  nativity  is  one 
that  has  by  right  a  place  in  the  world,  and  it  fired  their 
patriotic  imagination  in  a  manner  that  rendered  the  soil 
fertile  for  the  events  that  were  to  leave  a  lasting  mark  on 
the  history  of  the  days  already  casting  their  lengthening 
shadows  over  the  land. 

The  lesson  that  was  borne  in  upon  the  people  of  Ireland  at 
this  time  may  well  be  summed  up  in  the  words  of  List. 
"Let  us  only  have  courage,' '  he  wrote,  "to  believe  in  a  great 
national  future,  and,  in  that  belief,  march  onward.  Above 
all,  let  us  have  national  spirit  enough  at  once  to  plant  and 
protect  that  tree  which  will  yield  its  richest  fruits  in  the 
future  generation.  First,  let  us  gain  possession  of  the  home 
market,  so  far  at  least  as  respects  articles  of  general  necessity, 
and,  secondly,  let  us  try  to  procure  the  goods  of  other  coun- 
tries and  pay  for  them  with  our  own  manufactured  goods." 


CHAPTER  IV 


Sinn  Fein  and  Commerce 

PRACTICALLY  speaking,  Ireland  had  no  mercantile  ma- 
rine. A  few  coasting  steamers  and  cross-channel  vessels 
and  three  small  lines  of  steamers  running  to  Conti- 
nental ports  were  all  that  was  left  of  the  commercial  fleet 
of  Ireland,  which  was  at  one  time  among  the  greatest  in 
the  world.  Between  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  and 
1777  it  dwindled  as  the  consequence  of  the  laws  directed 
against  it  by  England,  until  at  the  latter  date  it  was  of  no 
importance.  The  Volunteer  movement  of  1780,  by  compelling 
England  to  cancel  all  her  restrictive  laws  on  Irish  commerce 
and  shipping,  brought  again  into  existence  a  powerful  Irish 
mercantile  marine,  and  its  growth  was  so  rapid  that  within 
five  years  (in  1785)  Tucker,  the  well-known  Dean  of  Glouces- 
ter, counseled  English  shipowners  to  fit  out  their  vessels  under 
the  Irish  national  flag,  since  the  Irish  marine  was  ousting  the 
English  from  the  ports  of  Europe. 

Sixty  years  prior  to  1905  Germany  had  little  or  no  mer- 
cantile marine,  and  shipped  its  goods  in  foreign  bottoms. 
Frederick  List  urged  upon  his  countrymen  that  it  was  vital 
they  should  possess  a  marine  of  their  own,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  magnificent  marine  which  Germany  has 
to-day.  The  importance  of  a  mercantile  marine  cannot  be 
minimized.  Without  the  carrying  trade  England  would 
not  possess  a  tithe  of  her  present  commercial  importance,  and 
Norway  would  be  a  negligible  factor  in  the  economic  life  of 
the  world.  Norway,  with  a  population  of  less  than  half  of 
Ireland's,  had  in  1905  a  mercantile  marine  of  1,500,000  tons. 
Belgium,  with  a  coast  line  scarcely  as  long  as  that  of  Dublin, 
was,  prior  to  the  war,  building  up  a  great  merchant  navy. 
At  the  present  time  (1917)  the  want  of  a  mercantile  navy  in 


22    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  United  States  is  being  keenly  felt.  Through  the  lack  of 
a  mercantile  marine,  Ireland  was  debarred  from  its  best 
markets,  deprived  of  its  share  in  the  universal  carrying  trade, 
and  was  out  of  touch  with  the  commercial  centers  of  the 
world. 

What  was  Ireland's  share?  Let  us  say  one  per  cent,  which 
is  very  low  considering  the  ideal  situation  enjoyed  by  Ireland 
for  foreign  trade.  The  countries  from  which  Ireland  im- 
ported, outside  of  England,  comprised  the  Republics  of  the 
United  States,  Argentina,  and  Chili,  and  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  in  America;  in  the  east,  India,  Australia,  and  Japan; 
and  within  Europe,  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Spain,  Portugal,  Denmark,  Italy,  Austro-Hungary,  and 
Russia.  The  total  annual  imports  of  these  countries  repre- 
sented $10,000,000,000.  One  per  cent  of  that  trade  would 
mean  an  increased  revenue  for  Ireland  of  $100,000,000 
annually. 

Was  it  not  then,  asked  the  Sinn  Feiners,  worth  while  to 
start  in  to  build  an  Irish  mercantile  marine?  Ireland  had 
one  of  the  greatest  ship-building  plants  in  the  world.  She 
had  the  best  and  safest  harbors,  and  enjoyed  an  ideal  situation 
at  the  very  gate  leading  to  the  most  progressive  countries  in 
Europe.  Ireland  had  an  abundance  of  the  material  out  of 
which  sailors  are  made,  and  was  the  natural  terminal  of  a 
trans-Atlantic  service.  Ireland  had  also  $250,000,000  lying 
idle  in  its  banks.  Let  Ireland  cultivate  the  spirit  and  initia- 
tive of  a  free  people;  she  had  been  content  long  enough  to 
depend  on  and  look  to  a  foreign  Parliament,  whereas  other 
nations  looked  to  and  trusted  in  themselves.  The  great 
marine  of  Norway  had  been  built  up  by  its  own  people. 
There  was  scarcely  a  man  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  Norway 
who  was  not  a  part  owner  of  a  ship.  Through  the  patriotism 
of  her  people,  Norway  had  built  up  a  great  commercial  navy, 
whose  flag  was  familiar  in  every  port  of  the  world.  Nearer 
home  to  Ireland  was  Scotland,  and  Scotland  also  possessed  a 
very  fine  marine.  There  were  Scottish  "tramp"  steamers  to 
be  met  with  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  no  one  ever  saw  an 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  23 


Irish  "  tramp "  steamer.  The  Sinn  Feiners  asked  if  there 
were  any  Irish  shipowners  with  enough  enterprise  to  fit  out 
"tramp"  steamers,  and  said  that,  if  there  were,  they  would 
not  benefit  themselves  alone,  but  their  country  also.  They 
pointed  out  that  a  "tramp"  line  between  Ireland  and  South 
America,  for  instance,  and  calling  at  French,  Spanish,  and 
other  ports  en  route,  could  not  fail  to  pay  its  owners,  whilst 
it  would  open  up  for  Ireland  a  lucrative  trade  and  lower  in 
Ireland  itself  the  prices  of  goods,  non-competing  with  Irish 
manufacture,  which  were  being  imported  through  England. 
"At  the  present  time,"  said  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders,  "Ireland 
has  little  trade  with  any  outside  country,  not  because  she 
does  not  produce  many  things  which  the  other  countries 
want  and  buy,  but  because  England  blocks  the  way  with  her 
middleman's  profit."  They  declared  that,  so  long  as  Ireland 
had  no  mercantile  marine  of  her  own  and  no  consular  repre- 
sentation abroad,  this  must  of  necessity  continue  to  remain 
the  case. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  British  Con- 
sular Service  has  always  been,  and  still  is,  run  solely  and 
absolutely  in  the  interests  of  Britain.  Ireland,  however,  is 
taxed  to  pay  for  its  upkeep.  The  British  Consul  announces 
on  his  brass  doorplate  that  he  represents  the  United  Kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  proportion  in  which  he 
represents  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is  shown  in  the  export 
figures  for  the  year  1904,  the  year  previous  to  the  proclamation 
of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  in  Dublin.  In  that  year  the  "United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland"  exported  over 
$15,300,000,000  worth  of  goods;  of  that  total  Great  Britain 
exported  $15,295,000,000  and  Ireland  the  remaining  $5,000,000 
worth.  In  other  words,  of  the  exports  of  the  "United  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland"  Britain  claimed  99ff  per 
cent,  and  Ireland  the  remaining  -^V  of  one  per  cent.  This 
result,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  exhibited  equally  the  benefit 
which  Ireland  derived  from  her  connection  with  Great  Britain 
and  the  efficacy  of  the  consular  service  —  for  Great  Britain. 
They  stated  that  the  remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs  was  for 


24    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Ireland  to  appoint  her  own  consuls,  to  send  Irishmen  to  act 
as  consuls  in  foreign  countries,  instead  of  sending  them  to 
"orate"  in  the  British  Parliament.  A  portion  of  the  $125,000, 
that  Ireland  then  subscribed  annually  to  keep  eighty  Irishmen 
in  London,  would  be  better  employed  in  keeping  about  half 
that  number  of  Irishmen  stationed  in  the  capitals  and  com- 
mercial centers  of  foreign  countries,  where  a  market  might 
be  found  for  Irish  products. 

It  was  pointed  out  that  Argentina  procured  one-third  of  her 
total  imports  from  Great  Britain;  North  America  one-fifth; 
Spain,  Russia,  and  Japan  one-fifth  each;  Scandinavia  one- 
fourth;  Holland  one-fourth;  Hungary  one-twelfth;  Belgium 
one- twelfth;  Australia  one-third;  and  South  Africa  and  India 
two- thirds.  To  assist  Great  Britain  in  securing  so  much 
trade,  the  Irish  people  imported  from  these  countries  and 
consumed  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  their  goods;  and,  as 
all  these  goods  were  procured  through  the  medium  of  England, 
Ireland  had  in  every  case  to  pay  a  middleman's  profit.  The 
Sinn  Feiners  proposed  that,  in  return  for  Irish  consumption 
of  the  goods  of  the  countries  named,  Ireland  should  have  its 
share  in  exporting  goods  to  them.  For  this  purpose  the  Irish 
people  should  choose  and  appoint,  from  year  to  year,  com- 
petent men  of  business  training,  character,  and  linguistic 
knowledge,  to  form  an  Irish  Consular  Service,  and  to  act  in 
all  respects  as  the  consuls  of  other  countries  do.  The  coun- 
tries in  which  profitable  markets  might  be  expected  from  the 
appointment  of  Irish  consular  representatives  were  the  United 
States,  Argentina  and  Chili,  Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa, 
France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Holland,  Spain,  Russia,  Japan, 
Denmark,  Italy,  and  Austro-Hungary.  There  were,  it  was 
pointed  out,  possible  fields  for  the  Irish  producer  in  every  one 
of  the  countries  named.  In  addition  to  the  increase  of 
revenue,  the  increase  of  trade  and  commerce  would  also  have 
the  effect  of  bringing  back  the  population  of  Ireland  to  the 
figure  it  stood  at  in  1845.  It  was  stated  that  the  maintenance 
of  a  Consular  Service  of  thirty  or  forty  men  would  cost  the 
country  annually  about  one-half  the  sum  the  maintenance  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  25 


an  Irish  Parliamentary  party  in  London  at  that  time  cost, 
and  under  no  circumstances  could  this  service  fail  to  repay 
the  outlay. 

Having  thus  dealt  with  oversea  transit,  the  Sinn  Feiners 
turned  to  the  problems  of  their  internal  system,  and  declared 
in  the  first  place  that  it  was  about  as  bad  as  maladministra- 
tion could  make  it.  Owing  to  the  attitude  of  the  railroad 
owners,  the  development  of  the  country  was  materially 
hampered.  Controlled  by  British  capital,  the  Irish  railroads 
had  two  schedules  of  freight  charges:  one  extremely  high, 
which  regulated  the  rates  between  different  localities  in  Ire- 
land; the  other  excessively  low,  which  regulated  the  rates 
between  England  and  Ireland.  As  a  consequence  of  this 
topsy-turvy  situation,  a  parallel  to  which  could  be  found  only 
in  musical  comedy,  it  is  cheaper  to  export  goods  to  England 
and  to  have  them  reshipped  to  their  destination  in  Ireland 
than  to  send  them  direct.  The  effect  of  this  strangling 
condition  is  easy  to  imagine.  The  Arigna  coal  mines,  for 
instance,  produced  as  good  a  coal  as  the  best  that  Great 
Britain  could  produce,  but  owing  to  the  railroad  rates  it  was 
impossible  to  get  it  generally  on  the  Irish  market.  The  Sinn 
Feiners  declared  that  they  could  not  make  up  for  the  defi- 
ciency of  the  railroads,  but  that  they  might  certainly  do  much 
to  relieve  the  situation  by  the  proper  utilization  of  the  semi- 
derelict  canal  system.  A  well-devised  scheme  of  canal  and 
river  service  under  the  control  of  the  Irish  County  Councils 
would  go  a  considerable  distance  in  the  direction  of  properly 
distributing  the  products  of  the  country,  and  at  the  time  a 
scheme  was  being  drafted  for  the  purpose,  although  some  of 
these  canals  were  controlled,  and  deliberately  left  unutilized, 
by  the  railroad  magnates. 

Following  the  discussion  of  these  problems  the  Sinn  Fein 
policy  took  up  a  number  of  other  equally  important  matters, 
not  the  least  among  these  being  the  poor  law  system,  afforesta- 
tion, national  civil  service,  national  courts  of  law,  national 
stock  exchange  and  banking  systems,  and  a  number  of  others 
that  will  briefly  be  touched  upon  in  the  following  chapters. 


26    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


It  may  be  well,  however,  to  indicate  here  one  of  the  reasons 
why  the  policies  advocated  by  the  Sinn  Feiners  were  not 
carried  out  in  their  entirety  from  the  first.  That  their  argu- 
ments were,  in  the  vast  majority  of  instances,  sound  and 
logical,  was  admitted  even  by  those  who  had  personal  reasons 
to  be  opposed  to  them.  Why  then  did  the  Irish  people  not 
take  them  up  immediately,  and  put  them  into  operation? 
The  main  reason  for  postponing  the  application  of  the  Sinn 
Fein  policy  was  the  fear  of  hampering  the  Parliamentary 
Party,  who  were  sent  to  Westminster  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  the  legislative  repeal  of  the  Union,  or,  as  it  was 
generally  called,  Home  Rule  for  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  V 


The  Poor  Law  System 


IHE  poverty  of  Ireland  has  become  almost  a  byword 


among  the  nations.    People  have  become  accustomed 


to  thinking  of  Ireland  as  a  land  of  hovels,  where 
half-civilized  men,  women,  and  children  roam  barefooted 
through  a  wilderness  of  bog  and  mire.  This  ridiculous  picture 
has  again  and  again  been  painted  for  the  benefit  of  the  unso- 
phisticated foreigner  by  English  writers,  whose  actual  igno- 
rance of  Ireland  is  equaled  only  by  their  wealth  of  imagination. 
While  Ireland  is  neither  a  land  of  hovels,  nor  of  bogs  and  mire, 
that  poverty  exists  is  nevertheless  a  fact.  That  poverty  seems 
more  helpless  in  Ireland  than  elsewhere,  is  likewise  true,  since 
England  is  determined  that  a  prosperous  Ireland  shall  not 
compete  with  her  in  the  commercial  markets  of  the  world. 
It  is  also  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  Ireland  was  one  of  the 
richest  countries  in  the  world  prior  to  her  complete  subjuga- 
tion by  the  English  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  that  the 
introduction  of  the  poorhouse  system  coincided  with  the 
introduction  of  British  law. 

The  poor  law  system  has  been  a  potent  instrument  for 
demoralizing  and  pauperizing  the  people.  From  1846  to 
1849  it  was  used  as  a  machine  for  forcing  the  small  farmers 
of  Ireland  into  the  poorhouse  or  into  the  emigrant  ship  by 
the  imposition  of  a  crushing  poor  rate.  Since  that  period  it 
has  served  to  impoverish  the  country  by  spending  public 
money  on  foreign  goods  and  by  subsidizing  emigration.  It 
has  also  served  to  debase  the  spirit  of  the  people  by  stamping 
pauper  on  the  brow  of  honest  men  and  women  whom  circum- 
stances rendered  temporarily  dependent  on  the  assistance  of 
their  fellow-citizens. 

In  no  other  country  in  Europe,  except  Great  Britain  itself, 


28    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


does  such  a  degrading  system  exist.  In  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  elsewhere,  the  State  recognizes  the  fact  that  periods 
occur  when  industrious  members  of  the  community  become 
impoverished  through  circumstances  for  which  they  are  not 
responsible,  and  it  administers  the  necessary  remedies  without 
undermining  the  self-respect  of  the  recipients.  It  does  not 
strike  them  from  the  lists  of  citizens,  or  imprison  them  in  a 
poorhouse,  as  England  does,  but  fits  them  again  to  take  a 
place  in  the  industrial  ranks.  Nor  do  the  poor  law  systems 
of  the  enlightened  nations  of  Europe  offer  the  poorhouse  to 
and  place  a  stigma  on  those  who,  after  a  life  of  honorable 
labor,  are  stricken  by  sickness  or  enfeebled  by  old  age.  They 
afford  them,  not  as  a  charity  but  as  a  right,  support  in  liberty. 
Under  the  British  system  alone,  the  poor  are  placed  in  the 
same  class  as  criminals. 

According  to  the  usual  system  prevailing  in  other  countries 
of  Europe,  the  poor  are  divided  into  three  classes:  those  who 
can  and  will  work,  those  who  are  willing  to  work  but  who  are 
unable  to  do  so,  and  those  who  can  work  and  will  not  work. 
For  the  first  class  it  finds  work;  for  the  second  it  provides 
sustenance,  not  as  a  charity  but  as  a  right;  for  the  third  class 
it  provides  the  proper  place,  the  prison.  In  Ireland  the 
British  poor  law  system  provides  the  same  remedy  for  all 
three  classes.  The  position  in  Ireland  is  this:  There  are  159 
Unions  and  8000  Poor  Law  Guardians,  elected  by  the  people. 
It  is  not  the  fault  of  these  Guardians  that  the  system  is  what 
it  is,  but  they  are  at  least  at  fault  in  so  far  as  they  do  not 
seek  to  neutralize  its  intention.  The  Sinn  Feiners  told  them 
that,  when  they  voted  the  money  of  the  Irish  people  to  help 
on  emigration  and  to  purchase  foreign  goods,  they  voted  to 
pauperize  further  their  own  country.  "Is  there  any  land  save 
Ireland,'*  asked  the  Sinn  Feiners,  "in  which  the  Poor  Law 
Guardians  would  dream  of  expending  the  poor  rate  on  pur- 
chasing foreign  cloth  to  attire  those  who  have  been  im- 
poverished by  lack  of  employment,  and  hire  foreign  tailors  in 
foreign  countries  to  make  it  up;  or  who  would  import  from 
abroad  the  food  on  which  to  feed  these  people,  when  their 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  29 


own  country  produced  abundance  of  cloth  and  food?"  Never- 
theless, that  which  would  be  inconceivable  in  any  other 
country  was  the  fact  in  Ireland.  Above  all  taxes,  the  poor 
tax  in  other  countries  is  directed  to  be  expended  within  that 
country.  In  Ireland  the  Guardians  in  the  majority  of 
instances  expended  it  abroad,  and  thus  kept  continually 
adding  to  the  total  of  pauperism  with  which  they  had  to 
contend. 

As  one  of  the  means  of  extracting  good  for  Ireland  from  the 
poor  law  system,  the  Sinn  Feiners  suggested  that  the  159 
unions  in  Ireland,  controlling  the  annual  expenditure  of 
$7,500,000,  should  in  council  draw  up  an  official  scale  of  union 
requirements,  use  uniform  advertisements  for  goods  of  solely 
Irish  material  and  manufacture,  and  print  a  scale  of  the 
various  quantities  necessary  yearly  for  the  collective  unions. 
The  action  of  the  North  Dublin  Union  in  1881  was  pointed 
to  as  an  illustration  of  what  could  be  done.  In  that  year 
the  Board  decided  to  reverse  the  English  "as-good-and-as- 
cheap"  policy,  and  to  purchase  only  goods  of  Irish  manu- 
facture, even  though  it  had  to  pay  an  enhanced  price.  When 
it  could  not  procure  exactly  what  it  required  of  Irish  manu- 
facture, it  procured  Irish  goods  that  served  as  a  substitute. 
The  result  was,  of  course,  that  increased  employment  was 
provided  in  Dublin,  and  in  the  end  the  ratepayers  gained  to 
the  extent  of  $4000  a  year. 

The  following  illustration  will  afford  an  insight  into  the 
actual  condition  of  affairs  that  existed  at  this  time  in  regard 
to  the  operation  of  the  poor  law.  Although  nominally  created 
in  Ireland's  interest,  the  Local  Government  Board  has  always 
regarded  it  as  its  primary  duty  to  push  the  interests  of  the 
British  manufacturers  in  Ireland.  In  1905  it  attempted  to 
induce  the  Irish  Boards  of  Guardians  to  accept  tenders  for 
the  supply  of  drugs  from  an  English  ring  of  manufacturers, 
which  was  trying  to  smash  the  competition  of  the  Irish 
druggists.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Boards  of  Guardians, 
the  Cork  Chemical  and  Drug  Company  put  the  issue  clearly. 
It  wrote:  "It  is  a  comparatively  simple  matter  for  English 


30    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


capitalists  to  crush  out  their  Irish  competitors,  and  we  know 
that  this  has  been  too  often  the  fate  of  Irishmen  striving  to 
promote  the  manufactures  of  the  country;  for,  once  the 
obstacles  of  competition  are  removed,  it  is  easy  enough  for 
the  foreigner  to  again  advance  prices,  and  thus  obtain  com- 
pensation for  his  preliminary  losses.  It  is  to  this  system  we, 
as  Irish  manufacturers  and  large  employers  of  labor,  object, 
but  we  are  always  ready  to  meet  the  ordinary  competition  of 
business,  so  long  as  this  is  conducted  on  fair  lines."  Many  of 
the  Irish  Boards  of  Guardians  responded  to  this  letter,  but, 
unfortunately,  the  bulk  of  the  unions  fell  into  the  net  spread 
by  the  English  ring,  and  in  consequence  a  very  large  sum  of 
Irish  money  made  its  way  that  year  across  the  channel. 
Under  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  a  thing  of  this  kind  would  be 
impossible.  The  action  of  the  Public  Boards  would  be 
a  united  one,  and  no  possibility  would  be  left,  so  far  as  they 
were  concerned,  for  a  syndicate  of  foreign  capitalists  to  crush 
out  the  home  manufacturer  and  the  home  trader. 

It  was  also  pointed  out  by  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  that  if 
the  159  Unions  of  Ireland  should  at  any  time  decide  to  use  no 
flour  but  Irish  flour,  twelve  months  from  that  time  many  of 
the  idle  mills  of  the  country  would  be  again  in  full  work,  and 
thousands  of  Irish  people  would  be  provided  with  employ- 
ment. Under  a  national  government,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners, 
there  would  be  no  room  for  pauperism  in  Ireland,  because 
under  such  a  government  those  unable  to  work,  through  no 
fault  of  their  own,  would  not  be  treated  as  paupers,  and  those 
able  to  work  would  be  provided  with  plenty  in  reclaiming 
the  four  million  acres  lying  waste  throughout  the  country. 
It  was  emphasized  that  one-half  the  victims  of  the  Irish  poor 
law  system  were  able-bodied  men  and  women,  and  the  ques- 
tion was  asked  if  any  foreign  nation  had  ever  been  known  to 
pay  out  millions  of  dollars  to  keep  in  soul-destroying  idleness 
tens  of  thousands  of  its  able-bodied  citizens  while  one-fourth 
of  its  soil  awaited  reclamation.  Yet  that  is  exactly  what  was 
being  done  in  Ireland,  where  twenty-four  per  cent  of  the  soil 
awaited  the  plow  or  the  tree.    The  central  plain  of  Ireland 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  31 


awaited  only  afforestation  to  raise  the  mean  temperature  of 
the  island  four  degrees,  and  thus  render  the  soil  doubly 
fruitful;  but  the  Irish  people  were  taxed,  not  to  carry  out  so 
noble  a  work,  but  to  perpetuate  pauperism.  The  Sinn  Feiners 
pointed  out  that  it  lay  within  the  powers  of  the  County 
Councils  to  devote  at  least  a  portion  of  the  local  taxation  of 
the  country  to  the  purposes  of  this  reclamation,  and  united 
action  on  the  part  of  the  Irish  County  Councils  and  Poor  Law 
Unions  could  divert  a  portion  of  the  poor  law  taxation  to 
reproductive  labor. 

In  this  same  connection  another  question  arose,  which  was 
also  taken  very  fully  into  consideration  by  the  framers  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  policy.  The  Poor  Law  Boards  of  Ireland  employed 
about  4000  officials,  while  the  Urban  Councils  and  County 
Councils  employed  at  least  2000  more.  Here,  said  the  Sinn 
Feiners,  we  have  the  foundation  for  a  National  Civil  Service. 
Of  this  army  of  officials,  paid  by  the  ratepayers,  the  appoint- 
ment of  seventy-five  per  cent  was  in  the  hands  of  men  elected 
as  Nationalists.  As  is  the  case  in  other  countries,  their 
appointment  was  determined  more  by  the  amount  of  personal 
influence  they  were  able  to  wield  with  the  members  of  the 
Board,  under  which  they  sought  appointment,  than  by  any 
other  consideration.  The  question  of  efficiency  was  often  a 
secondary  matter.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  evidently  tended 
both  to  the  impairment  of  efficient  local  administration  and  to 
a  lowering  of  the  moral  standard  in  the  conduct  of  public 
bodies.  Aware  that  the  public  bodies  would  scarcely  tolerate 
the  loss  of  their  "patronage,"  the  Sinn  Feiners  did  not  seek 
to  deprive  them  of  it.  What  they  proposed  was,  that  the 
patronage  should  be  exercised  thenceforth,  not  in  the  interest 
of  the  individual,  but  in  the  interest  of  the  nation.  They 
said  that  thousands  of  young  men  in  Ireland  had  joined  the 
British  Civil  Service,  and  thus  assisted  in  the  running  of 
the  British  Empire.  In  principle  this  was  wrong,  but,  under 
the  then  circumstances  of  the  country,  it  was  not  expedient  to 
place  the  same  ban  on  the  British  Civil  Service  as  on  the 
British  armed  forces.    The  Irishman  who  joined  the  British 


32    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


army,  the  British  navy,  the  "Royal  Irish"  Constabulary, 
necessarily  became  from  that  moment  the  enemy  of  his 
country,  for  he  had  taken  up  arms  against  Ireland.  The 
position  of  the  Irishman  who  had  joined  the  British  Civil 
Service  was  a  passive  and  not  an  active  one.  He  was  not 
employed  in  keeping  his  own  country  down,  but  he  was 
employed  to  an  extent  in  keeping  a  hostile  country  up.  It 
was  objectionable  and  regrettable;  but,  while  the  Sinn 
Feiners  would  continue  to  deprecate  Irishmen  entering  the 
British  Civil  Service,  they  would  distinguish  between  the 
armed  oppressor  and  the  passive  instrument  of  an  alien 
administration. 

Some  of  the  cleverest  and  ablest  men  in  the  British  Civil 
Service  were  Irishmen,  and  the  Sinn  Feiners  argued  that,  if 
they  deprived  England  of  their  services  and  secured  them  for 
Ireland,  they  would  be  dealing  a  double  blow  against  the 
foreign  rule  of  their  country.  In  the  suggested  consular  serv- 
ice, for  instance,  the  abilities  of  many  Irishmen  then  in  the 
higher  grades  of  the  British  Civil  Service  would  find  adequate 
and  congenial  employment,  while  for  the  hosts  of  young 
Irishmen  who  filled  the  secondary  posts  in  the  Civil  Service 
a  National  Civil  Service  under  the  local  governing  bodies  of 
Ireland  would  provide  scope.  For  the  haphazard  method 
of  selecting  the  local  officials  in  Ireland,  the  Sinn  Feiners  sug- 
gested the  substitution  of  an  ordered  one.  They  proposed 
that  a  National  Assembly  should  arrange  and  classify  the 
positions  of  officials  employed  by  all  the  public  bodies  in 
Ireland  in  three  grades,  and  applications  for  a  position  would 
be  entertained  only  from  those  who  had  successfully  passed 
a  qualifying  examination.  In  the  lowest  grade  candidates 
would  be  required  to  pass  an  examination  showing  an  ele- 
mentary acquaintance  with  the  Irish  language,  a  knowledge 
of  Irish  history,  and  an  acqaintance  with  Ireland's  resources. 
In  the  second  grade,  the  candidate  would  be  required  to  show 
himself  proficient  in  Irish  history,  in  the  Irish  language  as  a 
written  tongue,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  Ireland's  resources 
and  possibilities,  political  and  commercial.    For  the  highest 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  33 


grade  the  candidate  should  not  only  possess  a  full  knowledge 
of  Irish  history,  but  full  acquaintance  with  her  early  laws  and 
institutions;  he  should  be  proficient  in  Irish  both  as  a  written 
and  a  spoken  language;  he  should  know  Irish  literature  and 
understand  Irish  art;  he  should  be  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  Ireland,  agriculturally,  industrially,  commercially,  and 
topographically;  he  should  know  what  Ireland  had  achieved, 
and  be  able  to  show  what  she  could  achieve.  In  a  word,  he 
should  be  what  an  educated  American,  an  educated  French- 
man, an  educated  German  is  —  a  man  who  thoroughly  knows 
his  own  country. 

Such  a  National  Civil  Service  of  Ireland  would  demand  no 
more  than  the  National  Civil  Service  of  any  country  on  the 
continent  of  Europe  —  that  its  members  must  know  their 
own  country.  Institute  a  National  Civil  Service  in  Ireland, 
they  said,  and  the  English  education  system  of  the  country, 
designed  to  suppress  in  the  breasts  of  its  people  the  impulse 
of  patriotism,  would  be  revolutionized.  If  it  was  impossible 
for  those  ignorant  of  Ireland  to  gain  a  position  in  an  official 
capacity  in  Ireland,  the  schools  would  have  to  teach  their 
pupils  Irish  history,  the  Irish  language,  and  Irish  possibilities. 
A  National  Civil  Service  in  Ireland  would  prove  a  bulwark 
to  the  nation,  would  save  for  Ireland  thousands  of  men  who 
had  unwillingly  left  it,  and  would  necessarily  give  rise  to  the 
most  Irish-educated  generation  Ireland  had  known  for  cen- 
turies. It  would  mean  a  truly  educated  Ireland,  and  an 
educated  Ireland  would  be  the  harbinger  of  a  free  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Sinn  Fein  and  the  Law  Courts  and  Army 

NOT  less  important  to  the  nation,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders,  than  those  matters  which 
have  already  been  discussed,  were  national  courts  of 
law.  Hungary  understood  this,  and  established  arbitration 
courts  which  superseded  the  courts  which  Austria  sought  to 
impose  on  her.  Before  O'Connell  balked  at  the  proposal  to 
erect  a  de  facto  Irish  Parliament  in  Dublin,  Ireland  had  estab- 
lished such  courts.  The  prestige,  the  dignity,  and  the  strength 
such  a  national  legal  system  would  confer  upon  a  movement 
for  national  independence  is  obvious;  but  the  Sinn  Feiners 
argued  that,  in  addition,  it  would  deprive  the  corrupt  bar  in 
Ireland  of  much  of  its  incentive  to  corruption,  save  the 
pockets  of  the  Irish  people,  and  materially  help  in  bringing 
about  that  spirit  of  brotherhood,  of  national  oneness  in  Ire- 
land, which  all  who  loved  their  country  desired  to  see. 

The  decision  of  an  arbitration  court  is  binding,  not  only  in 
morals  but  in  law,  on  those  who  appeal  to  it.  The  Sinn 
Feiners  said  to  the  people  what  The  Nation  had  said  to 
them  in  1843:  "You  have  it  in  your  power  to  resume  popular 
courts  and  fix  laws,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  do  so.  It  is  the 
duty  of  every  Irishman  to  himself,  to  his  family,  to  his  neigh- 
bors, and  his  bounden  duty  to  his  country  to  carry  every 
legal  dispute  to  the  arbitrators,  and  to  obey  their  decision. 
If  you  resort  in  any  of  your  own  disputes  to  any  but  your 
own  judges,  you  injure  yourself  and  commit  treason  to  your 
country/ '  Eighty  per  cent  of  the  cases  heard  in  the  civil 
courts  of  Ireland,  involving  the  expenditure  of  an  enormous 
sum  of  money  which  served  to  keep  up  a  corrupt  judicial  sys- 
tem, could  be  equally  as  legally  decided  in  voluntary  arbi- 
tration courts  at  practically  no  expense  at  all. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  35 


The  proposal  made  by  the  Sinn  Feiners  was  in  the  following 
terms:  That  the  Irish  National  Assembly  should  appoint 
those  of  its  members  who  by  virtue  of  their  position  were 
eligible  to  act  as  Justices  of  the  Peace,  but  who  declined  to 
act  as  such  under  British  law,  to  act  as  judges  in  the  National 
Arbitration  Courts,  together  with  such  men  of  character 
throughout  the  country,  and  such  Irish  barristers  who  had 
not  "devoted  their  time  to  hawking  their  souls  for  sale  in  the 
Four  Courts,' '  as  it  might  be  necessary  to  add  as  assessors  or 
judges.  No  barristers  or  lawyers  should  be  permitted  to 
practice  in  the  National  Arbitration  Courts  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Assembly,  and  without  renouncing  their  practice  in 
foreign  ones;  and  the  Assembly  should  retain  the  same  power 
over  the  Arbitration  Judges  that  the  British  Parliament 
retained  over  the  British  Judiciary. 

In  this  way,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  Ireland  would  be  able 
to  wrest  the  judicial  system,  then  used  to  her  detriment,  from 
the  hands  of  the  foreigner  and  use  it  to  her  own  advancement. 
The  course  was  legal  and  feasible;  its  advantages  were  great 
and  obvious.  Papineau  took  it  to  Canada,  and  Deak  fol- 
lowed it  in  Hungary  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Ireland 
could  as  easily  follow  it  in  the  twentieth.  Its  advocates 
pointed  to  the  fact  that,  a  short  while  before,  Russia  was  an 
autocracy  that  seemed  as  fixed  and  immovable  as  the  north 
star,  but  was  reduced  to  impotency  by  a  strike.  It  was  not 
a  part  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  to  reduce  England  to  impotence 
by  a  cessation  of  labor,  but  it  was  a  serious  part  of  that  policy 
to  reduce  her  strength  by  strikes  of  another  kind  —  strikes 
against  using  her  goods,  for  instance,  and  against  filling  the 
ranks  of  her  armed  forces. 

In  this  latter  direction  the  anti-enlisting  movement  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  strong  features  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy. 
It  struck  home  at  a  vital  point  of  Imperialism;  it  presented 
to  the  British  Government  something  that  was  real  and  tan- 
gible opposition,  and  yet  was  difficult  to  prevent.  It  was 
always  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  English  Government  to  use 
every  possible  means  to  induce  Irishmen  to  join  its  army  and 


36    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


navy.  Irish  marching  airs  were  favorite  ones  in  the  British 
army,  and  English  writers  never  tired  of  telling  the  Irish 
people  what  fine  fighters  they  were,  while  in  the  same  breath 
reflecting  satirically  on  the  idea  of  such  a  quarrelsome  people 
conducting  their  domestic  affairs  for  themselves.  They  told 
the  Irishmen  —  but,  of  course,  not  in  so  many  words  —  that 
they  were  fine  examples  of  healthy  animals,  with  abundance 
of  muscle  and  a  minimum  of  brains  —  savage  fighters  with 
just  the  requisite  amount  of  intelligence  to  direct  a  bayonet 
thrust  or  to  aim  a  gun. 

At  the  time  when  the  industries  of  Ireland  were  declining 
under  unjust  laws  that  were  penalizing  them  out  of  existence, 
many  young  men  took  "the  king's  shilling"  and  became 
humble  servants  of  Her  or  His  Britannic  Majesty.  That 
industrial  conditions  were  almost  entirely  responsible  for  their 
enlisting  is  known  to  everyone  acquainted  with  Irish  life. 
On  account  of  the  lack  of  employment,  they  had  to  go  to  the 
poorhouse,  emigrate  to  America,  or  join  the  army.  Many 
were  unable  to  pay  for  the  passage  to  America,  and  for  them 
the  choice  was  still  more  limited.  It  is,  therefore,  not  sur- 
prising that  many  an  Irishman  succumbed  to  the  blandish- 
ments of  the  gaily  attired  recruiting  sergeant,  put  on  the 
red  uniform,  and  was  taught  to  forget  that  he  had  ever  had 
a  country. 

The  reader  who  knows  the  part  the  redcoat  has  played  in 
the  history  of  Ireland  will  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
why  the  Irish  people  hate  the  British  uniform.  From  the 
raids  of  Strongbow  and  the  massacres  of  Cromwell  to  the 
military  executions  of  1016,  the  uniform  of  England  has  ever 
spelled  bloodshed  and  sorrow  in  Ireland  —  not  to  mention 
worse  and  sometimes  more  serious  things.  It  is  not  a  state- 
ment actuated  by  malice  or  ill-feeling,  but  a  plain  historical 
fact,  that  the  conduct  of  British  soldiers  in  Ireland  has 
scarcely  been  equaled,  and  certainly  not  surpassed,  by  the 
atrocities  committed  upon  the  Armenians  by  the  Turks  or 
upon  the  Jews  by  the  Russians.  Ireland  has  had  its  own 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta;  has  seen  years  upon  years  of  wanton 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  37 


bloodshed  and  nameless  outrage.  Were  it  necessary  to  pro- 
duce proof,  a  chapter  of  horrors  could  be  written  that  would 
surpass  anything  of  a  similar  kind  the  world  has  ever  read. 
England's  own  historians  cannot  quite  conceal  this  fact,  and 
those  who  wish  to  prove  the  matter  have  ample  opportunity 
to  do  so  elsewhere. 

There  were,  therefore,  abundant  reasons  why  the  Sinn 
Feiners  stood  firm  against  the  enlistment  of  Irishmen  in  the 
British  army.  They  said  that,  sentiment  apart,  it  was  not 
a  national  policy  for  Irishmen  to  join  the  armed  forces  of  a 
country  that  was  oppressing  their  own  land.  At  the  time  of 
the  formulation  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  in  1905,  the  anti- 
enlisting  movement  had  already  accomplished  a  great  deal, 
but  there  was  a  great  deal  still  to  be  done.  There  were  then 
fewer  Irishmen  in  the  British  army  than  at  any  other  period 
during  the  previous  hundred  years,  but  there  were  still  pro- 
portionately far  more  Irishmen  than  there  were  Englishmen 
or  Scotsmen.  Thirty  years  previously,  out  of  every  1000 
men  in  the  British  army,  248  (or  just  one-fourth)  were  Irish. 
In  1905,  out  of  every  1000  men  in  that  army,  115  were  Irish; 
but  in  proportion  to  its  population  Ireland  supplied  many 
more  fighting  men  to  England  than  England  supplied  to  her- 
self. Out  of  every  10,000  men  between  15  and  40  years  of 
age  in  England,  276  were  soldiers  (a  large  number  being  of 
Irish  or  Scottish  parentage  or  descent);  out  of  every  10,000 
men  between  15  and  40  years  of  age  in  Scotland  248  were 
soldiers;  and  out  of  every  10,000  men  between  15  and  40 
in  Ireland  354  were  soldiers. 

This  striking  difference  bears  a  significance  peculiarly  its  own 
when  the  figures  are  examined.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Eng- 
lish took  particular  pride  in  their  army;  pointed  to  the 
deeds  that  the  "English"  army  had  accomplished,  while  the 
actual  truth  then,  as  to-day,  was  that  among  all  the  peoples 
on  the  face  of  the  globe  who  least  relish  fighting  the  English 
indubitably  hold  the  first  place.  In  the  British  Parliament, 
from  the  very  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  difficulty  in  inducing 
the  English  people  to  take  up  arms  in  defense  of  their  own 


38    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


country  was  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of  the  Teutonic  allies. 
When  it  comes  to  war,  the  average  Englishman  would  much 
rather  play  the  part  of  spectator  and  critic.  If  then  the 
Englishman  was  so  reluctant  to  fight  for  his  country  and 
Empire,  the  attempt  to  force  Irishmen  into  the  war  was 
nothing  less  than  an  impertinence. 

The  Sinn  Feiners  failed  to  see  why  the  Irish  people  should 
be  fighting  for  England,  and  the  English  people  getting  the 
credit  and  the  profit  in  any  case.  This  phase  of  the  matter 
caused  so  much  discussion  that  during  the  Boer  war,  when 
the  Irish  and  Scottish  regiments  were  being  slaughtered 
along  the  Modder  River  and  in  front  of  Kimberley,  the 
outcry  in  Ireland  and  the  questions  as  to  what  the  English 
were  doing  caused  the  Government  to  change  its  tactics 
somewhat.  As  a  special  concession,  Queen  Victoria  then 
graciously  gave  permission  to  the  Irish  soldiers  to  wear  a 
sprig  of  their  own  national  emblem  on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  in 
recognition  of  the  blood  they  had  shed  for  the  salvation  of 
the  Empire  and  to  bring  two  independent  Republics  under 
the  English  rule,  whose  benevolence  towards  small  nationali- 
ties they  of  all  men  had  best  reason  to  know.  Up  to  that 
time  the  wearing  of  shamrock  on  March  17th  was  a  crime  for 
which  an  Irishman  in  the  service  of  the  Empire  could  be 
flogged.  In  spite  of  the  gracious  act  of  Queen  Victoria,  the 
anti-enlisting  campaign  gathered  strength  after  the  Boer  war 
and  right  up  to  the  time  of  the  rebellion. 

There  was  one  other  kind  of  strike  that  the  Sinn  Feiners 
advocated,  and  that  a  very  effective  one  —  a  strike  against 
taxes.  The  people  of  Hungary  struck  against  taxes,  and 
compelled  Austria  to  collect  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
They  suffered,  but  they  remained  true  to  their  principles, 
and  in  the  end  they  won.  The  Sinn  Feiners  pointed  out 
that  Ireland  had  a  means  of  striking  against  British  taxes 
which  would  not  call  for  the  exercise  of  a  hundredth  part 
of  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  displayed  by  Hungary.  The  gross 
taxation  of  Ireland  for  British  purposes  represented  over 
$55,000,000  per  annum.    Of  this  the  only  considerable  direct 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  39 


tax  was  the  income  tax,  which  represented  about  $5,000,000, 
or  one-eleventh  of  the  whole.  For  obvious  reasons,  said  the 
Sinn  Feiners,  a  strike  against  the  income  tax  could  not  be 
made  general,  and,  even  if  it  were,  could  not  materially  affect 
England,  since,  after  she  had  paid  all  the  charges  for  the 
maintenance  of  her  government  in  Ireland,  she  still  had 
$15,000,000  profit.  It  was  evident  that,  if  the  Sinn  Feiners 
were  to  hit  England  effectively  by  a  strike  against  taxation, 
they  must  reduce  England's  revenue  from  Ireland  to  a  point 
below  her  expenditure  on  it. 

Out  of  the  $55,000,000  which  England  annually  took  from 
Ireland,  more  than  one-half  was  derived  from  the  sale  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  and  especially  whisky.  However,  out  of 
every  seven  cents  paid  in  Ireland  for  a  glass  of  whisky,  the 
British  Government  received  three  cents.  Here,  then,  said  the 
Sinn  Feiners,  without  anything  approaching  the  sacrifices 
that  other  countries  had  made,  Ireland  had  a  means  ready  at 
hand  for  an  effective  strike  against  taxes.  The  same  means 
had  been  used  by  the  United  Irishmen  a  hundred  years  before, 
and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  people  to  use  them  again.  By  the 
simple  process  of  reducing  by  one-half  their  expenditure  on 
drink  —  if  the  man  who  drank  two  glasses  of  whisky  each 
day  would  drink  only  one,  and  the  man  who  drank  two 
bottles  of  beer  a  day  would  content  himself  with  one  —  Ire- 
land would  be  able  to  decrease  the  British  revenue  from 
Ireland  by  so  many  millions  per  annum  that  practically  the 
whole  of  the  annual  profit  that  England  was  making  out  of 
the  government  of  Ireland  would  disappear. 

"If  there  be  any  man  calling  himself  an  Irish  Nationalist," 
said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  "who  is  not  prepared  to  sacrifice  a 
glass  of  whisky  or  a  bottle  of  beer  for  Ireland,  then  he  calls 
himself  by  a  name  to  which  he  is  not  entitled." 


CHAPTER  VII 


Sinn  Fein  and  Irish  Finance 

THE  fiscal  system  of  Ireland  is  the  complement  of  the 
land  system,  and  was  designed  and  conducted  solely 
in  the  interests  of  England.  In  England  the  Stock 
Exchange,  although  the  most  powerful  of  its  buttresses,  is 
uncontrolled  by  the  British  Government.  In  Ireland  the 
position  of  affairs  is  different.  English  statesmen  understood 
that  an  independent  National  Stock  Exchange  in  Ireland  was 
incompatible  with  English  financial,  if  not  with  English  politi- 
cal, interests.  They  therefore  placed  the  Irish  Stock  Ex- 
change directly  under  Government  control.  Does  the  reader 
know  just  what  this  means? 

A  walk  along  Dame  Street  (the  Wall  Street  of  Dublin) 
reveals  the  legend,  "Government  Stockbroker,"  written  on  a 
dozen  windows.  There  were  ninety -three  members  of  the 
Dublm  Stock  Exchange  in  1905,  and  these  ninety-three  had 
to  satisfy  the  British  Lord  Lieutenant  as  to  their  loyalty  to 
that  Government  and  their  devotion  to  British  interests, 
before  they  were  admitted  to  the  Exchange.  The  Sinn 
Feiners  contended  that  the  Stock  Exchange  in  Ireland  had 
had  no  near  rival,  save  the  banks,  in  ruining  Irish  industries  in 
the  interests  of  British  ones,  and  in  transferring  to  British 
pockets  millions  of  Irish  money.  In  every  country,  with  the 
exception  of  Ireland,  the  primary  function  of  the  Stock 
Exchange  is  to  create  a  market  for  local  stocks,  particularly 
the  shares  in  manufacturing  industries.  In  Ireland  the 
primary  function  of  the  Stock  Exchange  was  the  reverse. 
Any  limited  liability  company  started  in  Ireland  to  create 
and  develop  industries  or  develop  natural  resources  was 
unable  to  secure  a  quotation  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  unless 
backed  by  unusual  and  powerful  influences. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  191G  41 


One  of  the  results  of  this  condition  was  to  render  the  small 
investor  unwilling  to  invest  his  money  in  Irish  industrial 
enterprises.  To  illustrate  the  reason,  let  us  assume  that  the 
townspeople  of  Trim,  anxious  to  promote  the  prosperity  of 
their  town,  anxious  to  benefit  themselves,  and  anxious  to 
advance  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country,  have  decided 
to  start  a  woolen  factory  in  their  midst.  A  company  is 
formed  with  a  capital  of  $25,000  or  $50,000.  The  working- 
man  subscribes  for  one  $5  share,  and  the  well-to-do  store- 
keeper for  one  hundred  shares.  The  company  may  go  on 
prosperously,  but  a  few  months  hence  the  workingman  may  be 
in  need  of  money  and  be  anxious  to  dispose  of  his  share,  or 
the  storekeeper  may  find  it  imperative  to  turn  his  $500  stock 
into  cash.  If  the  company  possessed  a  Stock  Exchange  quo- 
tation, the  storekeeper  would  have  merely  to  telegraph  to  a 
stockbroker  in  Dublin  to  sell,  and  receive  in  a  few  hours  his 
cash  for  the  shares  at  the  price  current.  But,  if  the  com- 
pany happened  to  be  a  small  Irish  industrial  company,  its 
stock  would  not  be  listed  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  the 
storekeeper  could  not  turn  his  stock  into  cash  unless  by 
private  treaty.  His  need  for  the  money  might  be  urgent; 
his  $500  stock  might  be  worth  $750;  but  the  market  was 
closed  against  him  by  the  Government  stockbroker,  and  his 
only  resource  was  to  sell  by  private  negotiation,  involving 
delay  and  almost  invariably  loss.  The  small  Irish  capitalist, 
therefore,  refused  to  invest  in  companies  for  the  development 
of  Irish  industries,  but  invested  in  the  shares  of  gold  mines 
eight  thousand  miles  away,  which  he  never  saw  and  never 
would  see.  He  might  know,  and  generally  did  know,  that 
the  local  industry  was  a  sound  one;  he  might  suspect  that 
the  Calmazu  gold  mine  was  anything  but  sound;  but  he 
knew  that,  if  he  bought  Trim  Woolens  and  needed  the  money 
in  six  months'  time,  he  could  not  sell  his  stock  in  the  open 
market,  whereas,  if  he  bought  Calmazus,  the  Government 
stockbroker  would  turn  them  into  cash  for  him  at  any 
moment. 

Shut  out  from  the  natural  investment  of  his  money,  the 


42    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


small  Irish  capitalist  had  been  transformed  by  the  Govern- 
ment stockbrokers  into  a  pure  speculator,  or  in  other  words 
a  gambler  in  shares;  and,  as  such,  he  had  been  fleeced  in 
turn  by  every  species  of  financial  rascal  that  the  other  side 
of  the  Channel  had  been  able  to  produce.  "Chartereds," 
"Tyres,"  "Volemites,"  "Fish  Oil,"  and  their  kindred,  had, 
within  a  period  of  twenty  years  transferred  as  many  millions 
from  the  pockets  of  the  small  Irish  capitalist  to  the  pockets 
of  John  Bull  as  would  have  sufficed  to  set  the  idle  mills  of 
Ireland  working  and  to  provide  a  livelihood  in  their  own  coun- 
try for  the  tens  of  thousands  who  during  that  period  streamed 
out  of  the  Cove  of  Cork.  But,  as  the  Stock  Exchange  in 
Ireland  would  not,  as  the  Stock  Exchange  in  every  other 
country  did,  make  a  market  for  local  stocks,  the  small  capital- 
ist was  compelled  to  invest  his  capital  outside  Ireland  —  in 
ninety-nine  per  cent  of  cases  in  British  undertakings,  to  the 
immense  financial  advantage  of  England  and  to  the  financial 
loss  of  Ireland. 

The  Sinn  Feiners  held  that,  under  the  policy  they  advo- 
cated, the  abolition  of  this  system  was  a  matter  of  compara- 
tive ease.  If  the  Irish  National  Assembly,  representing  the 
public  bodies  of  Ireland,  demanded  the  creation  of  a  National 
Stock  Exchange,  that  exchange  would  immediately  come 
into  existence.  The  National  Assembly  had  but  to  order 
the  public  bodies  it  represented  to  transact  all  their  business 
in  the  buying  and  selling  of  stock  through  brokers  who  were 
prepared  to  constitute  themselves  into  a  National  Exchange, 
and  the  desired  result  would  necessarily  follow.  As  the 
National  Assembly  would  control  the  banking  of  some  mil- 
lions per  annum  in  Ireland,  the  banks  would  not  dare  to 
disobey  its  mandates,  and  would  therefore  be  forced  also  to 
support  the  National  Exchange. 

The  existence  of  a  National  Stock  Exchange  would  entirely 
alter  the  financial  position  of  the  country,  and  place  the 
industrial  revival  on  a  basis  too  firm  to  be  overturned. 
Ninety  or  nine  hundred  British  Government  stockbrokers 
could  not  withstand  for  a  year  a  National  Exchange  backed 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  43 


by  the  public  bodies  of  Ireland  and  performing  the  primary- 
function  of  a  Stock  Exchange  —  the  commercial  development 
of  the  country  for  the  benefit  of  its  inhabitants  and  their 
children. 

Turning  to  the  other  side  of  the  financial  system,  the  pro- 
pounders  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  proceeded  to  show  how  the 
banking  methods  in  Ireland  also  hindered  the  development  of 
Irish  resources  and  the  Irish  industrial  revival.  They  pro- 
duced figures  showing  that  the  Irish  people  had  $250,000,000 
in  the  Irish  banks;  that,  having  invested  the  bulk  of  this 
big  sum  in  British  stocks  at  %\  per  cent  or  less,  the  Irish 
banks  had  no  money  to  put  into  Irish  industrial  enterprises, 
but  had  millions  to  put  into  a  war  against  the  Boers.  During 
the  Boer  war  the  Bank  of  Ireland  lent,  free  of  interest,  to 
the  British  Government  the  money  of  its  Irish  depositors  to 
assist  in  the  extirpation  of  the  Boer  Republics,  against  which 
the  people  of  Ireland  had  no  grudge  and  with  whose  fight  for 
freedom  against  a  foreign  and  stronger  power  the  Irish  people 
were  in  entire  sympathy. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  same  war  the  banks  in  Ireland 
bought  British  Consols  at  95,  and  for  every  $100  stock  so 
purchased  the  Irish  banks  had  lost  $7  in  1905,  British  Con- 
sols having  during  the  interval  fallen  to  88.  While  that  loss 
had  to  be  borne  by  their  stockholders  nominally,  the  ultimate 
loss  fell  on  the  country  in  general,  which  could  not  but  be 
affected  adversely  in  various  ways  by  the  impairment  of 
national  credit.  To  the  banks  in  Ireland  national  credit 
connotes  of  course,  not  Irish  credit,  but  English.  Thus,  said 
the  Sinn  Feiners,  the  banks  of  Ireland  were  willing  to  lend 
the  money  of  the  Irish  people  for  British  purposes,  but  not 
for  the  development  of  Ireland.  The  Sinn  Feiners  pointed 
to  the  example  of  Louis  Kossuth,  who,  seventy-four  years 
previously,  when  he  had  successfully  inaugurated  the  National 
industrial  movement  in  Hungary,  found  himself  face  to  face 
with  a  similar  state  of  affairs.  The  banks  of  Hungary  were 
under  the  thumb  of  the  government  in  Vienna,  and  the  gold 
of  Hungary  was  drawn  thither  to  increase  the  gold  reserve 


44    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


of  the  Austrian  treasury.  The  banks  in  Hungary  were  then 
acting  in  precisely  the  same  manner  as  those  in  Ireland  still 
did.  They  lent  the  money  of  the  Hungarian  people  to  the 
Austrian  Government  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  but  they 
refused  to  lend  money  for  the  internal  development  of  Hun- 
gary. Kossuth  did  not  argue  with  the  banks.  He  secured 
the  support  of  the  local  councils  and  the  aid  also  of  patriotic 
men  of  wealth,  and  founded  the  National  Bank  of  Hungary. 
This  bank  lent  its  funds,  not  to  the  Austrian  Government,  but 
to  the  Hungarian  nation.  With  it  Kossuth  burst  up  the  fiscal 
conspiracy  which  oppressed  his  people,  and  doubled  the  wealth 
of  Hungary  in  five  years. 

What  was  possible  to  Louis  Kossuth  in  Hungary  in  1842, 
said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  was  possible  in  Ireland  in  1905.  If  the 
public  bodies  in  Ireland  unitedly  demanded  that  the  existing 
banks  should  play  the  part  of  National  banks,  should  cease 
to  lend  money  for  the  benefit  of  England,  and  should  begin 
to  lend  it  for  the  benefit  of  Ireland,  there  was  little  doubt 
indeed  but  that  they  would  refuse.  But,  when  they  refused, 
all  the  Irish  public  bodies  would  have  to  do  would  be  to 
withdraw  their  accounts,  and  a  National  Bank  would  come 
into  being.  This  National  Bank,  with  the  united  support  of 
the  Irish  public  bodies,  would  be  the  premier  bank  in  wealth 
and  influence.  With  the  establishment  of  a  National  Stock 
Exchange  and  a  National  Bank,  the  financial  system  that 
had  withdrawn  from  the  service  of  the  Irish  nation  $250,- 
000,000  and  turned  it  over  to  the  British  Treasury,  would 
come  to  an  end,  and  the  shriveled  veins  of  Irish  commerce 
would  be  refilled  with  the  blood  of  life. 

That  the  scheme  was  undoubtedly  practicable  was  shown 
by  the  widespread  attention  that  it  attracted,  especially 
among  the  politicians  in  England.  Numerous  articles  were 
printed  in  the  English  magazines  and  newspapers  relative 
to  the  scheme,  and  not  one  of  them  could  see  anything  com- 
mendable in  it.  This  unanimity  of  opinion  among  those  who 
had  most  reason  to  fear  it  deeply  impressed  the  Irish  people 
and  encouraged  the  Sinn  Feiners.    That  the  latter  made  no 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  45 


mistake  when  they  declared  that  the  Irish  banks  would 
refuse  to  take  part  in  the  plan,  was  soon  amply  demonstrated. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  men  of  position,  wealth,  and  influ- 
ence had  sufficient  patriotic  spirit  to  pledge  themselves  to 
the  support  of  the  plan,  and  among  these  there  was  none 
more  enthusiastic  than  The  O'Rahilly,  whose  name  was  later 
destined  to  become  historic  in  an  enterprise  more  thrilling 
and  appealing  to  the  imagination  than  the  establishment  of 
an  Irish  National  Bank.  Why  the  plan  was  not  carried  out 
has  already  been  explained  in  part  in  a  previous  chapter, 
and  will  be  touched  on  more  fully  later.  It  is  sufficient  to 
state  here  that  there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  could 
have  been  carried  out,  and  that  it  would  have  justified  every 
claim  that  was  made  for  it. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  withdrawal  of  gold  from 
Ireland.  It  is  not  without  interest  to  know  that,  at  the  time 
when  there  was  nominally  $250,000,000  in  the  banks  of  Ire- 
land, there  was  not  $20,000,000  in  gold  in  the  whole  of 
Ireland.  The  Irish  gold  deposited  in  the  Irish  banks  was 
sent  to  London,  and  there  exchanged  for  paper.  Nor  is  this 
the  most  significant  fact  of  the  situation.  When  the  Irish- 
man presented  a  Bank  of  Ireland  or  any  other  Irish  note  as 
payment  in  a  British  Government  office  in  London,  he  was 
promptly  informed  that  Irish  paper  money  could  not  be 
accepted.  The  late  Edmund  Dwyer  Gray  very  sensibly, 
therefore,  refused  to  accept  payment  in  paper  money  from 
the  banks  in  Ireland;  and,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  when  the 
people  individually  and  the  public  bodies  in  Ireland  acted 
with  equal  common  sense,  Ireland  would  retain  her  gold 
within  her  own  shores  and  permit  England  to  sell  paper  for 
gold  to  some  other  country. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


The  Council  of  Three  Hundred 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  mention  has  frequently  been 
made  of  the  Irish  National  Assembly,  and  it  is  now  time 
to  consider  what  this  meant  in  the  policy  of  the  Sinn 
Feiners. 

The  General  Council  of  the  County  Councils  of  Ireland 
afforded  the  nucleus  of  the  national  authority  under  the 
leadership  of  which  the  Sinn  Feiners  hoped  to  achieve  the 
results  outlined  in  their  policy.  They  proposed  the  formation 
<>£  a  Council  of  Three  Hundred,  composed  of  the  members  of 
the  General  Council  of  the  County  Councils,  and  representa- 
tives of  the  Urban  Councils,  Rural  Councils,  Poor  Law 
Boards,  and  Harbor  Boards  of  the  country.  This  Council  was 
to  sit  in  Dublin  and  form  a  de  facto  Irish  Parliament.  Sitting 
and  voting  with  this  body,  which  was  to  assemble  in  Dublin 
in  the  spring  and  autumn,  would  be  the  persons  elected  for 
[rish  constituencies  who  declined  to  confer  on  purely  Irish 
affairs  with  foreigners  in  a  foreign  city.  This  latter  reference 
was,  of  course,  to  the  Irish  members  of  the  British  Parliament, 
who  discussed  Irish  interests  in  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons with  a  overwhelming  majority  of  Englishmen,  Scotsmen, 
and  Welshmen. 

On  its  gathering  in  Dublin  this  National  Assembly  was  to 
appoint  special  committees  to  consider  and  report  to  the 
general  body  on  all  subjects  pertaining  to  the  country.  The 
Council  would  then  deliberate  on  the  reports  of  these  com- 
mittees, and  formulate  workable  schemes,  to  which,  when 
formulated,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  all  local  Councils  and 
other  bodies  to  give  legal  effect  as  far  as  their  powers  per- 
mitted, and,  where  these  legal  powers  fell  short,  to  give  it  the 
moral  force  of  law  by  instructing  and  inducing  those  whom 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


47 


they  represented  to  honor  and  obey  the  recommendations  of 
the  Council  of  Three  Hundred  individually  and  collectively. 

Over  all  the  departments  of  Irish  national  life  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  this  Council  of  Three  Hundred  was 
to  be  the  directing  authority.  The  Irish  local  councils  were 
in  a  position  to  levy  two  cents  in  the  five  dollars  for  technical 
instruction,  and  then  demand  and  receive  half  as  much  again 
from  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  valuation  of  Ire- 
land, that  is,  the  rateable  valuation,  was  roughly  $60,000,000, 
which  would  yield  an  annual  grant  for  technical  instruc- 
tion of  $240,000,  plus  $120,000  from  the  Department.  The 
Councils  also  had  the  power  to  raise  another  two  cents  in 
the  five  dollars  for  libraries,  thus  yielding  another  $240,000. 
Here,  then,  was  a  total  annual  revenue  of  $600,000,  which 
could  be  allocated,  inside  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  Act, 
by  direction  of  the  Council  of  Three  Hundred,  to  objects 
intended  to  serve  and  strengthen  the  country,  and  aid  in 
bringing  about  the  triumph  of  its  policy.  Under  the  heading 
of  technical  instruction,  it  would  be  possible  to  allocate 
money  to  train  the  people  in  crafts  useful  to  the  country,  and 
to  subsidize  and  offer  bounties  to  new  or  struggling  industries, 
this  latter  purpose  being  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
view  of  the  Sinn  Feiners.  Under  the  heading  of  libraries,  it  was 
possible  to  allocate  money  to  the  formation  and  foundation 
of  National  Libraries  throughout  the  country,  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  adults  in  national  history  and  national  subjects,  to 
the  establishment  of  local  museums  and  gymnasiums,  in 
which  they  could  be  trained  physically  and  taught  discipline. 
For  example,  when  the  Council  of  Three  Hundred  met  in 
Dublin,  it  might  be  proposed  that  a  certain  fixed  sum  be 
devoted  in  that  year  in  every  part  of  Ireland  to  the  physical 
training  of  the  people  and  their  instruction  in  Irish  history; 
whereupon  every  County  Council  in  Ireland  would  levy  the 
rate  and  allocate  the  portion  as  directed.  Thus,  uniformity 
of  action  and  work  would  be  attained,  and,  without  in  one 
iota  infringing  the  British  law,  the  recommendation  —  for 
these  resolutions  or  acts  of  the  Council  would  go  forth  as 


48    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


recommendations  —  would  be  given  the  force  and  status  of 
law. 

At  the  time  that  these  proposals  were  placed  before  the 
people  in  1905,  the  Irish  people  were  threatened  with  the 
withdrawal  of  the  grant  for  technical  instruction,  which  was 
paid  through  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  British 
Treasury  wanted  more  money  for  English  purposes.  One 
"Irish"  Board  of  British  nominees,  the  "National"  Board  of 
Education,  had  surrendered  without  protest  to  the  British 
Treasury  a  portion  of  the  monies  which  the  Irish  people  were 
compelled  to  pay  for  their  de-Irishing  education.  Another 
Castle  Board  was  then  contemplating  the  surrender  of  the 
money  that  had  been  taken  from  Irish  taxation  for  technical 
instruction.  The  Sinn  Feiners  brought  to  light  the  fact  that 
it  was  within  the  power  of  the  County  Councils  to  control  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  whose  jobbery  and  incompetence 
were  fast  becoming  a  public  scandal,  and  which  was  at  that 
time  attempting  to  plunder  the  country  for  the  benefit  of 
the  British  Exchequer. 

The  Agricultural  Board,  which  controlled  the  expenditure 
of  the  funds  intended  for  promoting  agriculture,  fishery,  and 
kindred  industries,  was  composed  of  twelve  persons,  the  elec- 
tion of  two-thirds  of  whom  was  in  the  hands  of  the  County 
Councils.  The  Board  of  Technical  Instruction,  which  con- 
trolled the  expenditure  of  the  money  applied  under  the 
heading  of  technical  instruction,  was  composed  of  twenty-one 
persons,  the  election  of  fifteen  of  whom  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  County  and  Borough  Councils.  Owing  to  the  supineness 
of  the  County  Councils,  which  had  not  yet  learned  their 
newly  given  power,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  had  been 
permitted  for  years  to  neglect  carrying  out  its  duties.  The 
time  had  come,  said  the  Sinn  Feiners,  to  use  it  with  all  the 
vigor  at  their  command.  The  proposal  was,  therefore,  put 
forward  to  extend  the  control  of  the  Council  of  Three  Hun- 
dred over  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  It  was  proposed  to 
use  the  $32,500,000,  which  was  annually  dealt  with  by  the 
Irish  elective  bodies,  solely  with  a  view  to  Ireland's  interests. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  49 


The  Sinn  Fein  policy  was  thus  to  establish  in  Ireland's 
capital  a  National  Assembly,  endowed  with  the  moral  author- 
ity of  the  Irish  people.  It  was  essential  to  the  successful 
working  out  of  this  policy  that  its  supporters  in  Ireland  should 
secure  their  votes  and  cast  them  for  men  in  Rural,  Urban, 
and  County  Councils,  who  would  apply  that  policy  to  their 
local  affairs  as  well  as  in  the  national  field.  In  Dublin  and 
other  cities  the  British  Local  Government  Board,  for  instance, 
prevented  the  Dublin  Corporation  from  providing  those  facil- 
ities for  education  and  recreation  which  the  municipalities  in 
other  countries  were  free  to  provide,  by  declining  to  sanction 
a  rate,  if  struck  for  such  purposes;  but  in  many  of  the  other 
cities  of  Ireland  there  was  a  borough  fund  which,  after  a  pay- 
ment of  certain  fixed  charges,  was  freely  at  the  disposal  of  the 
people.  On  investigation,  what  did  the  Sinn  Feiners  find  the 
state  of  these  funds  to  be?  The  Dublin  Borough  Fund,  which 
annually  amounted  to  about  $115,000,  was  found  to  be  over- 
drawn, because,  while  the  people  of  Dublin  were  keeping  their 
eyes  fixed  steadily  on  London,  burdens  were  thrown  on  the 
fund  which  it  should  never  have  borne.  Properly  handled, 
this  fund  would  have  prevented  much  of  the  distress  that 
prevailed  in  the  poorer  parts  of  the  city  each  recurring  winter, 
would  have  provided  for  the  people  means  of  rational  enjoy- 
ment, and  would  in  many  other  ways  have  improved  living 
conditions  in  the  capital.  The  Irish  people,  said  the  Sinn 
Feiners,  should  bring  the  policy  of  Sinn  Fein  into  every  depart- 
ment of  their  social  lives,  and  the  citizens  of  Dublin  should 
make  a  start  by  seeing  to  it  that  the  Borough  Fund  was 
again  made  available  for  the  purposes  for  which  it  was 
intended. 

As  a  statement  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  in  a  nutshell,  the 
following  quotation  from  the  speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Arthur 
Griffith  at  the  Rotunda  in  1905  will  not  be  inappropriate: 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  local  policy,  which  must  largely  be  determined 
by  local  circumstances,  further  than  to  say  that  I  have  seen  the  war 
vessels  of  Ireland's  enemy  welcomed  to  Dublin  and  entertained  by 
the  head  of  the  municipality,  whilst  I  have  seen  the  war  vessels  of 


50    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


friendly  nations,  Argentina  and  Holland,  enter  our  harbors  unwel- 
comed  and  unnoticed  by  the  municipality  of  Dublin.  I  pass  from  the 
stain  upon  our  soul  and  the  slur  upon  our  character,  and  ask  whether 
such  a  proceeding  is  calculated  to  advance  the  commercial  interests 
of  Ireland  in  Argentina  and  Holland.  Whilst  I  behold  British 
municipalities,  in  order  to  further  the  commercial  interests  of  Great 
Britain,  inviting  the  German  and  French  municipalities  to  visit  their 
cities,  I  can  find  no  instance  of  an  Irish  municipal  body  exhibiting 
similar  business  instinct.  The  policy  of  Sinn  Fein  proposes  to  change 
all  this,  to  bring  Ireland  out  of  the  corner  and  make  her  assert  her 
existence  in  the  world.  The  whole  basis  of  this  policy  is  national 
self-reliance.  No  law  and  no  series  of  laws  can  make  a  nation 
out  of  a  people  who  distrust  themselves.  If  we  believe  in  ourselves, 
if  each  individual  believes  in  himself,  we  shall  carry  this  policy  to 
victory  against  all  the  forces  that  may  be  arrayed  against  it.  If 
we  realize  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  citizen  and  dis- 
charge them,  we  shall  win.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  free  citizen  to  live 
so  that  his  country  may  be  the  better  for  his  existence.  Let  each 
Irishman  do  so  much,  and  I  have  no  fear  for  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  our  policy.  I  say  ultimate,  because  no  man  can  offer  Ireland  a 
speedy  and  comfortable  road  to  freedom,  and,  before  the  goal  is 
attained,  many  may  have  fallen  and  all  will  have  suffered.  Hun- 
gary, Finland,  and  Poland,  all  have  trodden  or  tread  the  road  we 
seek  to  bring  Ireland  along,  but  none  repine  for  the  travail  they  have 
undergone.  We  go  to  build  up  the  nation  from  within,  and  we  deny 
the  right  of  any  but  our  own  countrymen  to  shape  its  course.  This 
course  is  not  England's,  and  we  shall  not  justify  our  course  to  Eng- 
land. The  craven  policy  that  has  rotted  our  nation  has  been  the 
policy  of  justifying  our  existence  in  our  enemy's  eyes.  Our  mis- 
fortunes are  manifold,  but  we  are  still  men  and  women  of  a  common 
family,  and  we  owe  no  nation  an  apology  for  living  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  our  being.  In  the  British  Liberal,  as  in  the  British 
Tory,  we  see  our  enemy,  and  in  those  who  talk  of  ending  British 
misgovernment  we  see  the  helots.  It  is  not  British  misgovernment, 
but  British  government  in  Ireland,  good  or  bad,  we  stand  opposed 
to,  and  in  that  holy  opposition  we  seek  to  band  all  our  fellow- 
countrymen.  For  the  Orangeman  of  the  North,  ceasing  to  be  the 
blind  instrument  of  his  own  as  well  as  his  fellow-countrymen's 
destruction,  we  have  the  greeting  of  brotherhood  as  for  the  National- 
ist of  the  South,  long  taught  to  measure  himself  by  English  standards 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  51 


and  save  the  face  of  tyranny  by  sending  Irishmen  to  sit  impotently 
in  a  foreign  legislature  whilst  it  forges  the  instruments  of  its  oppres- 
sion. Following  the  illustrious  thinker  of  antiquity,  I  liken  a  nation 
to  a  ship's  company,  to  whom  different  tasks  are  allotted,  but  all 
of  whom  are  equally  concerned  in  the  safety  of  the  vessel.  And  in  a 
saying  of  this  great  predecessor,  I  find  summed  up  the  spirit  of  Sinn 
Fein:  "It  is  the  part  of  the  citizen  not  to  be  anxious  about  living, 
but  about  living  well."  If  we  realize  this  conception  of  citizenship 
in  Ireland,  if  we  place  our  duty  to  our  country  before  our  personal 
interests,  and  live  not  each  for  himself  but  each  for  all,  the  might 
of  England  cannot  prevent  our  ultimate  victory. 

This,  then,  was  the  policy  advocated  by  the  Sinn  Feiners. 
While  it  has  been  dealt  with  at  some  length  in  the  preceeding 
pages,  there  is  not  a  chapter  that  might  not  be  expanded 
indefinitely.  It  was  a  policy  that  appealed  strongly  to  the 
younger  men  and  women  of  the  country.  It  had  in  it  the 
promise  of  success,  and  that  it  would  have  succeeded  —  in 
fact,  that  it  did  succeed  in  so  far  as  it  was  applied  —  is 
certain.  In  the  years  between  its  promulgation  and  the  re- 
bellion of  1916,  the  work  done  was  widespread  and  important 
in  its  effect.  At  the  same  time  it  was  done  in  a  manner  that 
did  not  attract  a  great  deal  of  outside  attention.  But  the  fact 
that  it  was  done,  and  that  it  bore  the  fruit  it  was  expected 
to  bear,  has  since  amply  been  demonstrated.  The  spirit  of 
the  country  was  educated,  and  in  later  days,  when  one  crisis 
after  another  came  upon  the  country,  the  work  of  the  Sinn 
Feiners  was  seen  in  the  manner  in  which  the  people  arose  and 
demanded  the  rights  that  were  theirs. 

Having  thus  shown  exactly  what  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  was 
and  still  is  (for  the  Sinn  Fein  movement  is  neither  dead  nor 
dying),  it  will  not  be  without  interest  to  examine  wThat  the 
Parliamentarians  were  disposed  to  accept  as  a  "final  settle- 
ment of  the  Irish  demands."  This  will  be  much  briefer,  as 
its  scope  was  much  less  comprehensive  than  the  Sinn  Fein 
Policy. 


CHAPTER  IX 


The  Home  Rule  Bill 

THE  Third  Home  Rule  Bill,  regarding  which  much  has 
been  said  in  America  and  but  little  understood,  was 
never  accepted  by  the  Irish  people  as  a  final  settle- 
ment, but  was  looked  on  simply  as  the  basis  for  that  larger 
measure  of  freedom  that  they  desired.  In  the  opinion  of  the 
Sinn  Feiners,  it  meant  nothing  more  than  a  bare  beginning, 
and  was  accepted  merely  as  the  foundation  stone  on  which 
might  once  again  be  built  that  Irish  nation  which  they 
desired  to  see.  Some  people  are  under  the  impression  that 
the  Third  Home  Rule  Bill  gave  to  Ireland  practically  complete 
power  to  govern  herself.  How  far  this  was  from  being  true, 
it  is  now  our  purpose  to  briefly  indicate. 

In  the  first  place,  the  power  and  authority  of  the  British 
Parliament  to  legislate  for  Ireland  remains  unaffected  and 
undiminished  after  the  establishment  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
At  any  time  it  would  remain  within  the  power  of  the  British 
Parliament  to  impose  a  tax  on  Ireland  without  reference  to 
the  Irish  Parliament.  No  Act  of  the  British  Parliament 
extending  to  Ireland,  passed  after  the  establishment  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  could  be  altered  or  repealed  by  the  Irish 
Parliament,  even  though  the  new  Act  should  infringe  on  the 
powers  delegated  to  the  Irish  Parliament.  Furthermore,  any 
Act  passed  by  the  Irish  Parliament,  in  pursuance  of  the  powers 
conferred  upon  it  under  Home  Rule,  could  be  declared  void 
by  the  British  Parliament,  or  altered  by  the  British  Parlia- 
ment in  any  manner  that  the  latter  saw  fit.  It  would  thus 
seem  that  the  amount  of  power  that  Ireland  would  have 
under  this  Act  has  been  reduced  almost  to  a  minimum. 

In  addition  to  these  provisions,  it  was  provided  that  any 
law  made  by  the  Irish  Parliament  at  any  time,  in  pursuance 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


53 


of  the  powers  delegated  to  it,  could  become  automatically 
void  when  the  British  Parliament  passed  a  general  Act  in 
which  a  different  law  was  made.  The  only  exception  to  this 
rule  was  in  the  case  of  Customs  and  Excise  duties,  which  the 
Irish  Parliament  was  given  power  to  vary  within  very  narrow 
and  strictly  defined  limits.  Apart  from  these  powers  of  the 
British  Government  to  annul  or  reverse  the  legislation  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  the  British  Lord  Lieutenant  could  be 
directed  by  the  British  Cabinet  to  postpone  for  an  indefinite 
period  giving  assent  to  any  Act  passed  in  Dublin.  Even 
though  an  Irish  Act  passed  and  received  the  Royal  Assent, 
it  could  at  any  time  be  impugned  by  any  person  or  corporation 
as  invalid.  The  question  whether  an  Act  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, signed  in  the  name  of  the  monarch,  which  had  been  for 
any  term  of  years  regarded  as  settled  law,  was  not  and  never 
had  been  law,  was  then  to  be  decided  by  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee of  the  British  Privy  Council,  sitting  in  London.  This 
tribunal  was  to  consist  of  not  fewer  than  four  British  lawyers 
and  only  one  Irish  lawyer. 

The  power  of  veto  and  interference  thus  retained  by  Eng- 
land bore  no  analogy  to  that  nominally  retained  over  the 
British  Colonies.  These  Colonies  control  their  own  Customs. 
If  England  attempted  to  exercise  a  veto  on  their  Acts,  they 
would  retort  by  increasing  the  Customs  duties  on  British 
goods.  Under  the  Home  Rule  Act,  Ireland  could  impose  no 
tariffs.  In  the  event  of  the  British  Parliament  exercising  its 
powers  to  annul,  alter,  amend,  suspend,  or  override  Irish 
legislation,  enacted  in  pursuance  of  the  powers  assigned  under 
the  Home  Rule  Act,  Ireland  was  bereft  of  the  powers  of 
resistance  possessed  by  Canada,  Australia,  and  South  Africa. 
She  could  do  nothing  but  pass  a  resolution  of  protest.  To 
say  that,  because  England  did  not  interfere  with  her  Colonial 
Parliaments,  she  would  not,  therefore,  interfere  with  that  set 
up  in  Ireland,  is  to  assume  more  than  the  facts  seem  to 
warrant.  Her  Colonies  were  thousands  of  miles  away  from 
her  center  of  Government,  and  had  the  fiscal  strength  to 
oppose  a  veto.    Ireland  is  but  two  hours'  sea  journey  from 


54    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


her  shores,  and  was  physically  and  fiscally  naked.  It  is  also 
folly  to  think  that,  even  though  friendly  relations  came  to 
exist  between  the  two  countries,  the  legislation  of  each  would 
not  at  times  conflict,  since  under  the  most  amicable  relations 
the  interests  of  no  two  countries  can  always  be  identically 
the  same. 

At  the  same  time,  even  the  Sinn  Feiners  admitted  that, 
under  Home  Rule,  some  veto  power  held  by  England  over 
Ireland  (for  example,  on  the  question  of  raising  armed  forces) 
was  inevitable.  The  extent  and  the  nature  of  the  veto  was 
the  matter  for  consideration.  In  his  speech  on  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  in  1893,  John  Redmond  dwelt  on  the  veto  power  as 
the  most  vital  question  in  connection  with  Home  Rule.  It 
was  obvious  that,  no  matter  how  extensive  the  powers  which 
a  Home  Rule  measure  purported  to  confer  on  Ireland,  these 
powers  would  remain  illusory  so  long  as  the  British  held  an 
unrestricted  veto.  On  the  occasion  mentioned,  John  Red- 
mond demanded  that  a  guarantee  be  inserted  in  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  that  the  British  Parliament  would  not  exercise  its 
power  of  legislation  for  Ireland  over  the  head  of  the  Irish 
legislature  in  respect  to  the  questions  committed  to  its  charge 
by  the  Home  Rule  Bill.  Mr.  Redmond  pointed  out  that,  so 
far  from  the  presence  of  Irish  members  at  Westminster 
affording  protection  against  unfair  use  of  the  veto  powers, 
their  presence  there  would  be  an  invitation  to  have  it  regarded 
as  a  Court  of  Appeal  from  the  Irish  legislature.  "Men  would 
go  there  for  the  purpose  of  wrecking  the  Irish  constitution  by 
initiating  debates  on  every  Irish  question.' '  Under  such  a 
veto  power,  he  said,  Ireland's  position  after  Home  Rule  could 
be  rendered  worse  than  her  position  without  Home  Rule. 
He  stated  that  Ireland  could  not  tolerate  the  setting-up  of 
the  British  Parliament  as  the  Court  of  Appeal  over  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Irish  legislature,  and  he  claimed  that  no  veto 
should  exist  over  the  Irish  Parliament  within  the  limits  of  its 
charter  save  the  constitutional  veto  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
exercised  on  the  advice  of  a  responsible  Irish  Ministry.  In 
this  stand  Mr.  Redmond  was  supported  by  the  whole  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  55 


Ireland,  the  people  recognizing  that  the  position  he  had 
taken  up  was  the  only  correct  one. 

Nineteen  years  later  the  people  were  amazed  when  this 
obnoxious  power  was  inserted  in  the  Third  Home  Rule  Bill, 
under  which  every  person  in  Ireland  might,  within  the  law, 
dispute  the  legality  of  any  Act  of  the  Irish  legislature.  The 
Irish  people  admitted  that  everyone  was  entitled  to  dispute 
any  Bill  that  was  under  consideration,  but  they  held  that, 
once  it  became  the  law  of  the  land,  such  a  power  would  lead 
to  nothing  but  confusion  and  trouble.  They  took  the  same 
stand  as  Mr.  Redmond  had  taken  in  1893,  but  Mr.  Redmond 
and  his  Party  retreated  from  their  position  and  agreed  to  the 
veto  power  as  stated  in  the  Act.  On  this  matter  he  was 
opposed  by  the  Sinn  Feiners,  who  held  that,  so  long  as  the 
Irish  Parliament  did  not  exceed  the  powers  conferred  on  it, 
its  legislation  should  not  be  subject  to  veto,  suspense,  altera- 
tion, or  amendment  by  the  British  Parliament,  save  on  the 
advice  of  the  Irish  Ministry;  that  the  British  Parliament 
should  not  at  any  time  legislate  for  Ireland  on  any  of  the 
matters  that  had  been  specifically  handed  over  to  the  Irish 
Parliament,  and  that  no  Bill  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  which 
became  an  Act  by  Royal  Assent,  should  have  its  validity 
questioned. 

Amongst  the  powers  reserved  from  the  Irish  Parliament 
was  the  collection  of  taxes,  and  under  no  conditions  was  this 
to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  people.  The  Irish 
taxes  would  be  collected  by  officials  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment, and  the  cash  paid  by  them  into  the  British  Exchequer. 
This  was  also  a  reversal  of  the  proposal  of  1893.  The  revenue 
collected  in  Ireland  having  been  paid  into  the  British  Ex- 
chequer, a  Board  of  five  persons  would  then  decide  how  much 
should  be  paid  out  of  the  British  Exchequer  into  the  Irish 
Treasury.  With  the  sum  thus  paid,  the  Irish  Government 
would  have  to  defray  the  expenses  of  all  the  departments  and 
services  under  its  control.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  Sinn 
Feiners  that  a  government  that  was  not  able  to  collect  its 
own  taxes  was  a  jest,  and  a  very  sorry  one  for  the  Irish 


56   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


people.  The  final  part  of  the  joke  was  that,  should  it  ever 
be  shown  that  the  Irish  Government  had,  for  three  successive 
years,  a  surplus  income  over  expenditure,  it  would  then  be 
arranged  that  Ireland  would  pay  a  contribution  to  the  British 
Exchequer. 

In  addition  to  this,  Ireland,  under  the  Act,  would  be 
restricted  from  making  laws  respecting  the  Crown,  peace  and 
war,  the  army  and  navy,  treason,  alienage,  naturalization; 
it  was  expressly  forbidden  to  raise  a  territorial  force,  or, 
should  any  such  force  be  raised,  to  exercise  any  control  over 
it,  and  also  forbidden  to  make  treaties  for  the  purposes  of 
trade  with  any  other  countries,  including  the  British  Colonies, 
or  to  maintain  a  consular  service.  She  was  forbidden  to 
make  any  legislation  with  respect  to  her  trade  outside  her 
own  shores.  She  was  forbidden  to  make  quarantine  laws  or 
navigation  laws.  She  was  forbidden  to  exercise  any  national 
control  over  her  tidal  waters  and  over  her  lighthouses,  buoys, 
and  beacons.  She  was  forbidden  to  interfere  with  the  Mer- 
chandise Marks  and  similar  Acts,  to  mint  her  own  money, 
or  to  change  the  standard  of  weights  and  measures.  It  was 
also  provided  that  the  Irish  Parliament  should  not  make  its 
own  qualifications  or  disqualifications  for  membership  to  its 
own  body,  whatever  qualified  a  person  to  be  a  member  of 
the  British  Parliament  constituting  the  rule  with  regard  to  the 
Irish  Parliament.  Furthermore,  whatever  form  of  oath  the 
British  Parliament  administered  at  any  time  to  its  members, 
would  have  also  to  be  the  form  of  oath  administered  to  the 
members  of  the  Irish  legislative  body. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  power  was  also  reserved  from 
the  Irish  Parliament  over  old-age  pensions,  national  insurance, 
labor  exchanges,  post  office  savings  bank,  trustee  savings 
banks,  friendly  societies,  public  loans  made  in  Ireland  before 
the  passing  of  the  Act,  and  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary. 
Provision  was  made  for  the  ultimate  transfer  of  all  of  these, 
with  the  exception  of  public  loans,  at  different  periods  after 
the  establishment  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 

The  Irish  Parliament  was  to  consist  of  a  House  of  Commons 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  57 


and  a  Senate,  with  a  total  membership  of  204.  The  Senators 
were  to  be  Government  nominees,  and  the  Commoners  to  be 
elected  on  the  existing  Parliamentary  franchise.  An  Irish 
Minister  might  be  a  member  of  either  House,  but  could  vote 
only  in  the  House  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

The  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  to  be  elected 
for  a  term  of  not  more  than  five  years.  The  members  of  the 
Senate  were  to  hold  office  for  eight  years  from  the  time  of 
their  appointment,  irrespective  of  changes  of  government  or 
of  general  elections.  One-fourth  of  the  Senators  would  retire 
every  second  year,  and  be  eligible  for  reappointment  by  the 
Government  of  the  day.  Peers  were  to  be  eligible  for  election 
to  the  Commons  and  for  nomination  to  the  Senate,  but  no 
dual  membership  was  possible.  In  addition  forty-two  Irish 
members  were  to  be  elected  to  the  British  Parliament  in 
Westminster,  and  in  this  case  dual  membership  was  possible, 
for  they  were  to  be  eligible  to  sit  in  the  Irish  Parliament, 
either  as  elected  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  or  as 
nominated  members  of  the  Senate,  while  being  at  the  same 
time  members  of  the  British  House  of  Commons.  It  was 
permitted  the  Irish  Parliament  to  admit  women  to  vote  for 
the  election  of  members  to  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  but  it 
had  no  power  to  admit  women  to  vote  for  the  election  of 
Irish  members  to  the  British  House  of  Commons.  Only  the 
British  Parliament  itself  had  the  right  to  confer  that  power 
on  the  women  of  Ireland. 

These,  in  brief,  are  the  proposals  that  were  embodied  in 
the  Third  Home  Rule  Bill,  which  later  became  known  as  the 
Home  Rule  Act.  In  addition  to  the  restrictions  that  were 
made  in  the  Act  itself,  other  and  still  more  obnoxious  pro- 
visions were  made  in  order  to  limit  the  power  of  the  Irish 
Parliament.  It  does  not  require  a  very  careful  examination 
to  discover  the  wide  difference  that  exists  between  the  Sinn 
Fein  policy  and  the  Home  Rule  Act.  The  one  aimed  at 
making  Ireland  a  nation  of  self-reliant  people,  with  their  own 
trade  laws  and  their  own  representation;  the  other  merely 
meant  that,  within  certain  narrow  limits,  Ireland  was  to  be 


58    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


permitted  to  manage  one  or  two  of  the  minor  details  of  her 
national  life,  under  the  strict  supervision  of  England.  Both 
the  Sinn  Fein  policy  and  the  Home  Rule  Act,  however, 
played  their  part  in  leading  up  to  the  events  that  culminated 
in  the  Rebellion  of  1916,  and  they  cannot,  therefore,  be 
ignored  as  unimportant  factors  in  the  situation.  Without  a 
knowledge  of  both,  it  would  be  impossible  to  comprehend  at 
their  true  value  the  events  which  followed. 


CHAPTER  X 


Ireland  at  Westminster 

THE  events  leading  up  to  the  introduction  and  passage 
of  the  Third  Irish  Home  Rule  Bill  —  or,  as  it  was 
officially  called,  The  Government  of  Ireland  Bill  — 
were  full  of  significance  for  the  Irish  people,  and  were  in  no 
small  measure  responsible  for  the  events  that  startled  the 
world  in  1916.  Rebellions  are  not  manufactured  in  a  day  or 
a  year,  and  it  is  necessary  to  look  back  a  little  in  order 
properly  to  comprehend  the  causes  that  give  them  birth. 
That  in  Ireland  in  1916  is  no  exception  to  this  rule. 

For  forty-five  years  Ireland  had  pursued  a  policy  that  was 
the  very  negation  of  the  Sinn  Fein  proposals,  a  policy  of 
recognition  of  the  right  of  a  foreign  assembly  to  make  laws 
to  bind  the  people  of  Ireland.  This  contrary  policy  consisted 
in  sending  103  men  from  Ireland  to  make  laws  for  Ireland  in 
conjunction  with  567  Englishmen  and  Scotsmen  —  a  propor- 
tion of  one  Irishman  to  five-and-a-half  foreigners.  It  involved 
the  abrogation  of  the  Treaty  of  1783,  the  admission  of  the 
validity  of  the  Act  of  Union,  and  it  extended  the  color  of 
constitutionalism  to  every  act  of  the  British  Government  in 
Ireland,  whether  that  act  was  in  the  interests  of  Ireland  or 
not,  and  whether  or  not  the  Irish  members  voted  for  that  act. 
It  is  a  political  truism  that  no  country  can  be  governed 
constitutionally  against  its  will,  and,  while  the  people  of 
Ireland,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  portion  of  the  Province 
of  Ulster,  were  practically  unanimously  opposed  to  English 
Government  in  Ireland,  they  nevertheless  admitted,  by  send- 
ing members  to  the  British  Parliament,  that  Ireland  was  a 
constitutionally  governed  country,  and  that  the  laws  made  in 
England  for  her  —  tax  laws  or  coercion  laws  —  were  made  by 
and  with  the  authority  of  Ireland  and  with  her  consent. 


60    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


The  association  of  the  policy  of  Parliamentarianism  with 
the  Home  Rule  movement  in  Ireland  was  the  result  of  acci- 
dent. The  Home  Rule  movement  was  inspired  by  the  success 
of  Francis  Deak  in  Hungary;  and  the  decision  of  John  Martin, 
after  his  election  for  Meath  in  1870,  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
British  House  of  Commons  (instead  of,  as  he  originally 
intended,  remaining  at  home  in  Ireland),  was  the  chance  which 
converted  the  Home  Rule  movement  into  one  relying  on 
action  in  the  British  Parliament  for  its  success.  Parliamenta- 
rianism, however,  could  not  have  continued  to  secure  sup- 
port, had  not  the  brilliantly  obstructive  tactics  of  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell  paralyzed  the  working  of  the  British  legislative 
machine. 

When  the  machine  was  rendered  proof  against  obstruction, 
Parnell  recognized  that  the  sole  remaining  hope  of  achieving 
anything  through  Parliamentarianism  consisted  in  securing 
the  balance  of  power  between  the  two  British  parties.  He 
secured  the  balance  of  power,  used  it,  and  lost  it  again.  The 
General  Election  of  1892  restored  the  balance  of  power  to  the 
Irish  Parliamentary  Party,  but  the  party,  divided  within 
itself,  owing  to  the  "Parnell  Split,"  did  not  attempt  to  make 
any  use  of  it.  In  1906,  one  year  after  the  introduction  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  policy  and  after  the  expiration  of  eleven  years  of 
British  Tory  Government,  the  British  Liberal  Party,  whose 
return  to  power  seemed  certain,  owing  to  the  nonconformist 
opposition  to  the  existing  school  system,  was  permitted 
formally  to  erase  Home  Rule  from  its  programme,  where  it 
had  been  subscribed  since  1886.  Nevertheless,  the  Irish  vote 
in  Great  Britain,  which  the  leader  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary 
Party  claimed  controlled  140  seats,  was  directed  to  be  cast 
for  the  Liberal  candidates.  The  Liberals  were  returned  with 
an  overwhelming  majority  over  all  parties,  and  the  Irish 
Parliamentary  Party,  by  relinquishing  all  effort  to  secure  the 
balance  of  power,  voluntarily  accepted  a  position  incomparably 
weaker  than  that  which  it  occupied  after  the  General  Elections 
of  1886,  1895,  and  1900.  As  already  said,  the  policy  of 
obstruction  had  ceased  to  be  effective,  and  had  been  definitely 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  61 


abandoned  by  Parnell.  John  Redmond  formally  inaugurated 
the  policy  of  wheedling  from  the  strong  measures  which 
Parnell  would  have  wrung  from  the  weak. 

Following  this  came  revelations  in  Ireland  that  caused  no 
little  perturbation  among  the  people,  revealing,  as  they  did, 
something  in  the  nature  of  an  intrigue  to  rob  them  of  what 
they  hoped  would  be  the  fruits  of  their  long  fight  for  legisla- 
tive independence.  The  details  of  these  revelations  were  very 
carefully  suppressed  at  the  time,  but  the  facts  are  now  beyond 
dispute.  That  the  British  Liberal  Party  very  deliberately 
made  a  deal  to  relieve  themselves  of  their  promises  to  the 
Irish  people  is  certain;  and  that  the  Irish  Parliamentary 
Party  fell  into  the  trap  laid  for  it,  if,  in  fact,  it  did  not 
acquiesce  in  the  arrangement,  is  also  demonstrated.  It  is 
quite  certain  that  the  leaders  of  the  Party  were  aware  of 
what  was  going  on,  and  that  their  official  newspaper  organ 
in  Dublin  had  in  its  possession  facts  which  it  did  not  use,  but 
instead  presented  to  the  Irish  people  a  version  of  the  situation 
which  was  diametrically  opposed  to  the  actual  facts. 

The  secret  history  of  the  intrigue  begins  in  November, 
1905,  almost  to  the  day  when  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  was  first 
announced  to  the  Irish  people.  At  that  time  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  called  on  to  form  an  administration 
composed  of  British  Liberals.  In  that  administration  Sir 
Edward  Grey  refused  to  accept  a  place,  unless  the  Prime 
Minister  gave  him  assurance  and  guarantee  that  Home  Rule 
would  be  erased  from  the  Liberal  programme.  The  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  Unionist  Free  Traders, 
proffered  his  section  of  the  Liberal  Unionist  vote  on  condition 
that  Sir  Edward  Grey's  terms  were  accepted.  During  the 
progress  of  the  negotiations  between  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
and  the  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Arthur  Griffith,  who  had  come 
into  possession  of  the  facts,  called  the  attention  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Parliamentary  Party  to  what  was  being  done,  but 
both  these  leaders  and  their  press  maintained  a  rigid  silence. 
In  December,  1905,  the  agreement  was  concluded,  and  Mr. 
John  Morley,  who  had  previously  been  named  as  Chancel! 


62    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


of  the  Exchequer,  was  compelled  to  stand  down  and  permit 
Mr.  Asquith,  Sir  Edward  Grey's  colleague  and  nominee,  to  be 
appointed  in  his  stead.  On  December  28,  on  the  eve  of  the 
General  Election,  Arthur  Griffith  made  a  final  appeal  to  the 
Party  leaders,  but  was  again  ignored. 

A  few  days  later  the  British  Premier's  private  secretary 
announced  at  a  public  meeting  of  the  Liberals,  amid  cheers: 
"Home  Rule  is  dead!"  And  the  British  Prime  Minister, 
addressing  his  constituents  in  Scotland,  declared  he  would 
never  vote  for  a  separate  or  an  independent  Parliament  for 
Ireland.  On  the  day  following  this  decision,  the  Irish  Par- 
liamentary leaders  issued  a  statement  calling  on  the  Irish 
voters  in  Great  Britain  to  support  the  British  Liberal  candi- 
dates. In  Ireland,  the  people  generally,  owing  to  the  manipu- 
lation of  the  daily  press,  remained  for  a  while  ignorant  of 
what  had  taken  place.  Within  forty-eight  hours  after  the 
public  declaration  of  the  Liberal  leaders  that  Home  Rule  was 
dead,  the  chief  organ  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  wrote: 
"The  two  great  questions  raised  for  decision  at  the  General 
Election  are  Home  Rule  and  Free  Trade.  Every  member  of 
the  Liberal  Government  is  in  favor  of  Free  Trade  for  England 
and  Home  Rule  for  Ireland."  1  In  view  of  the  public  declara- 
tions of  some  of  the  Liberal  leaders,  this  statement  can 
scarcely  be  interpreted  otherwise  than  as  a  deliberate  attempt 
of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  to  mislead  the  people. 

Another  stage  in  the  intrigue,  and  one  in  which  the  Irish 
Party  was  mainly  concerned,  was  reached  at  the  meeting  of 
the  Directory  of  the  United  Irish  League  in  September,  1906. 
The  United  Irish  League  by  this  time  had  become  one  of  the 
most  efficient  electoral  machines  ever  seen  in  Europe,  and  one 
that  was  absolutely  at  the  command  of  the  Irish  Party 
Leaders.  Mr.  John  E.  Redmond,  who  acted  as  Chairman, 
moved  a  resolution  empowering  the  party  to  accept,  on 
behalf  of  the  Irish  people,  a  lesser  measure  than  Home  Rule 
from  the  British  Liberal  Government.  The  proposal  was 
strongly  opposed  by  the  bulk  of  those  members  present  who 

1  Freeman's  Journal,  editorial  article,  January  2nd,  1906. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  63 


were  not  members  of  the  British  Parliament,  but  this  oppo- 
sition was  almost  wholly  withdrawn  when  the  Chairman 
threatened  to  resign  if  his  resolution  were  not  carried.  The 
resolution  undoing  the  work  of  Parnell  was  passed,  and  the 
way  cleared  for  the  Irish  Councils  Bill.  This  Bill,  having 
been  drafted,  was  submitted  by  the  Government  to  the 
leaders  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  and  accepted  by 
them.  On  its  being  submitted  to  the  Irish  people,  even  the 
well-oiled  machine  was  unable  to  conceal  the  indignation  that 
greeted  it.  From  every  corner  of  the  land  it  was  rejected 
with  indignation,  and  the  storm  of  protest  was  such  that  the 
Liberal  Government  withdrew  the  Bill,  and,  for  the  time 
being,  the  matter  was  dropped.  Mr.  Redmond,  seeing  that 
the  people  were  not  to  be  fooled  altogether,  promised  that 
another  and  a  better  Bill  would  soon  be  forthcoming.  There- 
upon, the  people  prepared  to  possess  their  souls  in  patience 
for  a  while  longer,  and  sat  down  for  another  period  of 
waiting. 

During  this  time  the  leaders  of  the  Sinn  Fein  movement 
were  not  idle.  They  not  only  spread  broadcast  the  truth 
about  the  negotiations  that  had  taken  place,  and  which,  they 
declared,  had  been  carried  through  for  the  purpose  of  betray- 
ing the  people,  but  they  increased  and  strengthened  their 
hold  on  the  people  with  their  own  policy.  The  leaders  of  the 
Parliamentary  Party  became  alarmed  at  the  progress  that 
the  Sinn  Feiners  were  making,  and  did  all  in  their  power  to 
strangle  the  movement.  Thus,  there  again  occurred  in  Ireland 
one  of  those  internal  feuds  that  have  been  repeatedly  the 
cause  of  the  disruption  of  the  country.  In  spite  of  every- 
thing, however,  the  Sinn  Feiners  continued  to  gather  strength, 
and  Sir  Thomas  Esmond  and  Mr.  Charles  Dolan,  both 
members  of  the  Irish  Party  in  the  British  House  of  Commons, 
refused  to  join  in  the  policy  of  making  Ireland  subserve  the 
interests  of  the  Liberal  Party  managers.  While  this  was 
going  on,  the  taxation  of  Ireland  was  further  increased,  and 
every  month  saw  a  greater  number  of  young  men  and  women 
leaving  the  shores  of  Ireland  to  settle  in  foreign  countries, 


64    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


where  they  would  have  more  opportunity  of  utilizing  their 
natural  talents. 

These  three  years,  1905,  1906,  and  1907,  may  well  be 
regarded  as  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  that  culminated  in 
the  execution  of  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion.  The  manner 
in  which  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  had  been  acting 
in  concert  with  the  Liberal  Government,  had  engendered  a 
distrust  that  became  greater  and  greater  as  the  days  passed. 
Discontent  became  more  and  more  pronounced,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  taxation  was  going  up,  and  the  number 
of  emigrants  increasing,  made  the  opposition  to  the  Party 
the  more  bitter.  It  was  openly  stated  that  Mr.  Redmond 
and  his  Party  were  merely  a  section  of  the  British  Liberal 
Party,  and  one  event  after  another  seemed  to  bear  out  this 
allegation.  There  were  not  wanting  many  who  stated  in  the 
public  press  that  the  Party  had  betrayed  the  country,  and 
this  naturally  increased  the  ranks  of  those  who,  believing  that 
there  was  no  hope  from  the  actions  of  the  British  Parliament, 
found  themselves  thrown  back  on  methods  less  "constitu- 
tional" than  those  advocated  by  the  Parliamentarians. 

The  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  supported  the  Liberal  Gov- 
ernment in  voting  the  increase  of  taxation.  As  the  best 
possible  explanation  of  what  this  meant  to  the  country, 
already  overburdened  by  British  taxes,  the  following  report 
from  the  Financial  Relations  Commission,  signed  by  four 
Unionists  and  one  Home  Ruler,  may  be  quoted.  The  Com- 
mission was  appointed  by  the  British  Government  to  make 
inquiry  into  the  alleged  discrepancies  that  existed  between 
taxation  in  Ireland  and  the  cost  of  the  government  of  that 
country.    The  report  states: 

We  believe  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  so-called  local  expendi- 
ture is  due  to  her  [Ireland's]  connection  with  Great  Britain,  and,  if 
the  latter  country  ceased  to  exist,  we  see  no  reason  for  supposing 
that  the  revenue  for  carrying  on  the  government  of  Ireland  need 
exceed  that,  for  instance,  required  in  Sweden,  where  the  population 
is  about  the  same,  and  where  the  annual  expenditure  for  all  purposes 
is  less  than  the  local  expenditure  in  Ireland. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  65 


The  following  table  has  been  constructed  from  official 
returns  to  show  the  free  and  better  known  smaller  nations  in 
Europe  that  were  able  to  maintain  themselves  in  prosperity 
with  a  lesser  annual  revenue  each  year  than  Ireland  was 
forced  to  contribute  annually  to  England  for  the  privilege  of 
being  misgoverned: 


Country  Population    Taxation  Per  Head 

Greece   2,433,806  $5.64 

Roumania   5,936,690  5.76 

Switzerland   3,315,443  6.60 

Wurtemberg   2,169,486  6.84 

Norway   2,240,032  7.80 

Denmark   2,464,770  7.92 

Sweden   5,513,644  8.04 

Ireland   4,376,600  10.38 


And,  while  this  scandalous  overtaxing  proceeded,  the 
country  was  bleeding  to  death.  Emigration,  in  the  first 
eleven  months  of  the  same  year  (1907),  reached  the  total  of 
38,417  persons,  as  against  35,344  for  the  preceding  twelve 
months.  In  the  twenty- three  months  from  the  time  that  the 
British  Liberal  Party  returned  to  power,  nearly  75,000  per- 
sons, the  great  majority  of  them  between  17  and  35  years  of 
age,  emigrated  from  Ireland. 

These  are  facts  that  cannot  be  ignored.  That  they  were 
not  ignored,  and  that  the  Parliamentary  Party  and  the  Liberal 
Party,  whose  support  they  were,  were  forced  to  take  notice  of 
them,  was  proven  when,  in  1911,  the  Third  Home  Rule  Bill 
was  introduced  under  circumstances  unique  in  English  history 
and  with  results  that  will  forever  remain  engraven  in  the 
story  of  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  XI 


The  Parliament  Act 

FROM  the  time  when  Gladstone  took  up  the  Irish 
question  until  the  passage  of  the  Parliament  Act, 
the  British  House  of  Peers  had  been  the  one  insur- 
mountable obstacle  to  the  enactment  of  a  measure  of  Irish 
legislative  independence.  It  required  no  study  of  the  situa- 
tion to  know  that  at  no  time  would  the  Upper  House  of  the 
British  Parliament  willingly  agree  to  the  passage  of  a  Home 
Rule  Bill.  There  were  three  reasons  for  this  attitude.  In  the 
first  place,  there  was  existent  among  the  aristocracy  in  Britain 
a  hatred  for  everything  that  was  Irish,  since  Ireland  was 
always  challenging  them  to  appear  before  the  bar  of  human- 
ity and  answer  for  their  misdeeds;  in  the  second  place,  Home 
Rule  threatened  their  pocket-books,  for  it  would  mean  a  final 
and  equitable  settlement  of  the  land  question;  in  the  third 
place,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  Gilded  Chamber  to  veto,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  every  piece  of  legislation  that  came  from  a 
Liberal  Government,  which,  in  English  politics,  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  masses  against  the  classes.  It  may  be  well  to 
deal  with  these  matters  a  little  more  fully. 

The  dislike  of  the  British  aristocracy  for  the  people  of  Ire- 
land is  easily  understood.  A  large  percentage  of  the  members 
of  the  English  nobility  were  landlords  over  Irish  property. 
They  had,  therefore,  as  already  said,  every  reason  to  believe 
that  a  measure  of  Irish  freedom  might  very  seriously  inter- 
fere with  their  annual  incomes.  As  it  was,  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  remain  at  home  in  London  or  abroad  on  the  Continent, 
while  their  agents  in  Ireland  collected  for  them  the  rents  from 
their  Irish  tenants.  The  Irish  land  ownership  agitation, 
which  aimed  at  returning  the  land  to  the  people,  was  one 
that  these  absentee  landlords  viewed  with  a  distaste  amount- 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  67 


ing  to  horror.  An  Irish  land  reform  would  inevitably  stir 
up  discontent  among  the  English  tenants,  who,  always  treated 
with  a  certain  amount  of  humanity  by  their  landlords,  had 
not  yet  felt  the  real  pinch  of  dual  ownership  as  the  Irish  had. 
The  nobility,  therefore,  had  a  vision  of  being  forced  eventu- 
ually  to  do  something  for  their  living  if  anything  should  hap- 
pen to  reduce  their  rent-rolls,  and  they  were  besides  firm 
believers  in  the  inalienable  rights  of  owners  that  had  inherited 
landed  property  from  marauding  ancestors  who  had  been 
given  miles  upon  miles  of  fertile  Irish  land  as  a  reward  for 
their  services  in  extirpating  the  Gael.  Again,  they  had  inher- 
ited, along  with  their  Irish  property,  a  natural  abhorrence  of 
all  that  savored  of  Ireland.  Ireland  was  a  thorn  in  their 
flesh,  for  it  was  very  difficult  to  find  a  pretext  for  English 
barbarity  there.  The  tradition  that  the  Irish  were  a  semi- 
civilized,  wholly  uneducated  race  of  near-barbarians,  who  were 
permitted  to  exist  merely  as  an  act  of  grace  on  the  part  of 
their  English  conquerors,  brought  consolation  to  their  souls. 
That  these  same  Irish  were  the  heirs  of  a  civilization  far  older 
and  far  more  advanced  than  their  own;  that  Ireland  was,  as 
their  own  Dr.  Johnson  wrote,  "the  quiet  habitation  of  sanc- 
tity and  literature, "  while  all  the  rest  of  Europe  was  being 
overrun  by  hordes  of  barbarians,  were  facts  that  never  pre- 
sented themselves  to  their  minds.  They  merely  scoffed  at 
all  such  ideas  in  that  highly  superior  manner  that  is  peculiarly 
—  and  happily  —  their  own.  They  are,  in  fact,  the  same 
people  who  consider  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  as 
"those  awful  Yankee  bounders. "  And  yet  many  Americans, 
descendants  of  men  who  wrung  their  liberty  from  the  ances- 
tors of  these  same  bigots,  accept  as  true  and  well  founded  the 
statements  and  sneers  of  these  bigots,  whose  true  worth  and 
credibility  are  shown  incontestably  by  American,  no  less  than 
Irish  history. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  English  nobles  were  also  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  Liberal  Party,  owing  to  the  latter 's  advocacy  of 
measures  of  reform  that,  to  them,  savored  of  the  rankest 
kind  of  socialism.    That  the  people  of  their  own  country,  the 


68    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


"lower  orders,"  should  aspire  to  something  higher  than  their 
daily  toil,  was  something  that  the  Tories  were  unable  to  under- 
stand. When  the  Liberals  were  returned  to  power  and  pro- 
ceeded to  propose  all  kinds  of  novel  legislation,  such  as  an 
Old  Age  Pension  Bill,  Workmen's  Insurance  Bill,  and  other 
bills  calculated  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  "lower  orders," 
the  Tories  laughed  in  their  sleeves,  and  howled  in  their  press. 
They  had  plentiful  reason  for  their  laughter,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  House  of  Lords  was  overwhelmingly  Tory,  and 
every  bill  proposed  in  the  Lower  Chamber  had  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Lords  for  their  approval  before  it  could  pass 
into  law.  The  Upper  Chamber,  being  hereditary  and  not 
elective,  remained  always  a  Tory  bulwark  of  protection  against 
the  legislation  of  the  Liberals.  When  the  Tories  were  returned 
to  power  by  the  country,  the  House  of  Lords  lapsed  ever  in 
a  condition  of  slumber;  but,  when  the  Liberals  were  per- 
mitted a  brief  period  of  activity,  the  Lords  discovered  that 
they  had  a  function  under  the  Constitution,  and  amended  or 
vetoed  everything  the  elected  house  chose  to  do. 

The  fact  that  the  Liberal  Government  which  succeeded  the 
Tory  Boer  War  Government  was  suspected  of  alliance  with 
the  Irish  Party,  caused  so  much  resentment  among  the  Tories, 
and  the  Tories  raised  so  much  trouble  among  the  electors, 
that,  as  has  already  been  recorded,  the  Liberals  were  scared 
of  the  Home  Rule  issue  and  publicly  eliminated  it  from  their 
platform.  For  the  average  Englishman  draws  the  line  at 
extending  to  Ireland  the  sympathy  he  feels  for  oppressed 
classes  at  home.  The  manner  in  which  the  Irish  people 
scorned  the  Councils  Bill  and  every  suggestion  to  accept  a 
lesser  measure  than  Home  Rule  warned,  however,  the  Irish 
Party  at  Westminster  and  their  Liberal  colleagues  that  some- 
thing would  have  to  be  done,  as  the  Irish  voters  in  England 
had  secured  the  election  of  a  large  number  of  Liberal  members. 
It  was  planned  to  introduce  a  Home  Rule  Bill  to  satisfy  the 
Irish  people,  in  the  certain  belief  that  it  would  receive  its 
quietus  in  the  House  of  Lords.  This  plan,  however,  did  not 
appeal  to  David  Lloyd  George,  who  was  anxious  for  other 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  69 


reasons  to  clip  the  wings  of  the  Upper  Chamber,  instead  of 
giving  them  the  political  prestige  of  another  victory.  At  the 
same  time  the  Sinn  Fein  movement  was  gaining  ground  with 
so  much  rapidity  that  Mr.  Redmond  warned  the  Govern- 
ment that  the  situation  was  serious,  and  that  the  only  thing 
left  for  them  to  do  was  to  introduce  a  Home  Rule  Bill 
that  would  have  some  chance  of  acceptance  by  the  Irish 
people. 

In  the  meantime,  Chancellor  Lloyd  George  and  Premier 
Asquith  had  decided  on  a  definite  plan  of  campaign.  As  it 
seemed  impossible  to  pass  any  remedial  legislation  for  England 
and  carry  out  their  election  promises  to  the  country,  the 
Liberals  decided  that  the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  put  it  out 
of  the  power  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  mutilate  and  destroy 
Liberal  bills.  It  was  thus  decided  to  send  as  many  Bills  as 
possible  up  to  the  Lords.  Should  the  Lords  reject  them, 
the  widespread  indignation  among  the  various  sections  of  the 
electorate  interested  in  the  various  Bills  could  be  utilized  to 
end  once  and  for  all  the  veto  which  the  Lords  placed  on  all 
Liberal  legislation.  As,  owing  to  the  vast  influence  exercised 
by  the  Lords  through  their  social  and  financial  standing,  a 
close  and  bitter  election  might  be  expected,  the  support  of  the 
Irish  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  was  necessary  for  the 
success  of  their  plans.  Hence,  it  was  decided  that  a  new 
Home  Rule  Bill  should  be  drafted  and  included  in  the  scope 
of  the  Parliament  Bill,  which  was  to  deprive  the  Lords  of 
their  veto. 

Briefly,  the  Parliament  Act  provided  that  any  bill  passed 
in  three  successive  annual  sessions  by  the  Lower  House  in 
the  same  form  should  become  the  law  of  the  land  whether 
the  Upper  House  approved  of  it  or  not.  In  order  that  this 
should  be  possible,  it  was,  of  course,  necessary  that  this 
amendment  to  the  British  Constitution  should  be  passed 
under  the  old  system,  and  the  Tories  were  at  first  jubilant, 
owing  to  their  belief  that  such  an  outrageous  piece  of  legis- 
lation would  be  thrown  out  of  the  House  of  Lords  the  moment 
it  made  its  appearance.    But  David  Lloyd  George  had  not 


70    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


forgotten  that  contingency,  and,  with  the  introduction  of  the 
Parliament  Bill,  it  was  also  made  known  that  its  rejection 
by  the  House  of  Lords  would  be  the  signal  for  the  creation  of 
a  sufficient  number  of  Liberal  Peers  to  override  the  Tory  major- 
ity in  the  Upper  Chamber  and  pass  the  Bill.  Then  it  was 
that  the  Tories  began  to  get  really  worried.  That  it  was 
within  the  power  of  the  Liberal  Premier  to  demand  from  the 
Sovereign  the  creation  of  the  required  number  of  Peers,  there 
was  no  doubt;  and  the  Tories  were  faced  with  the  prospect 
of  having  their  blue  blood  thinned  out  by  the  introduction  of 
a  horde  of  tradesmen  peers,  and  the  Bill  passed  in  spite  of 
themselves,  or  of  cheerfully  agreeing  to  pass  the  measure  that 
meant  their  own  political  effacement.  After  a  heart-rending 
struggle,  and  a  general  election  in  which  the  people  returned 
the  Liberals  to  power,  they  chose  the  latter  course. 

The  passage  into  law  of  the  measure  that  made  the  will  of 
the  elected  representatives  of  the  country  supreme  over  the 
hereditary  House  of  Lords  was  hailed  with  considerable 
enthusiasm  in  Ireland.  Under  the  old  regime  the  question 
always  asked  concerning  the  fate  of  a  measure  of  relief  for 
Ireland,  was:  "How  will  it  get  past  the  Lords?"  To  this 
question  there  was  never  a  satisfactory  answer.  Now,  how- 
ever, the  way  was  clear,  and  there  could  be  no  longer  any 
excuse  for  a  failure  to  pass  a  Home  Rule  Bill.  The  Liberals 
had  a  substantial  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  with, 
of  course,  the  Irish  vote.  Without  the  support  of  the  Irish 
vote,  they  would  have  been  in  a  very  precarious  position,  and 
would  certainly  have  been  driven  from  office  long  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  The  people  in  Ireland  were  well  aware 
of  this,  and  were  all  the  more  confident  that  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  would  be  something  worth  while.  The  Liberals,  they 
argued,  would  not  fail  to  deal  well  with  those  who  had  kept 
them  in  office,  and  had  made  possible  the  passage  of  much 
remedial  legislation  for  the  English  people. 

The  defeat  of  the  Unionists  threw  the  latter  into  consterna- 
tion for  the  time  being.  The  Parliament  Bill  became  law  on 
August  18,  1911,  in  spite  of  the  assertions  of  the  Tories  that 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  71 


the  King  would  not  sign  it.  This,  however,  George  V  did, 
it  being  one  of  the  first  official  acts  of  his  reign.  On  Novem- 
ber 8,  following  a  prolonged  crisis  in  the  ranks  of  the  Tories, 
the  leader  of  the  opposition,  Arthur  James  Balfour,  was 
forced  to  resign.  The  announcement  that  his  leadership  had 
come  to  an  end,  even  for  the  time  being,  was  another  occasion 
for  rejoicing  in  Ireland,  where  the  name  of  Balfour  was  hated, 
and  not  without  good  reason. 

Speculation  as  to  the  provisions  of  the  long-expected  Home 
Rule  Bill  then  became  the  leading  topic  of  the  hour.  There 
were  rumors  that  the  Tories  were  planning  to  defeat  the 
Government,  and  thus  make  it  impossible  for  the  Liberals 
to  bring  in  the  bill  at  all.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  actually 
succeeded  in  outvoting  the  Government  by  means  of  a 
cleverly  engineered  "snap"  division,  but  the  Liberals,  having 
still  their  Irish  majority  back  of  them,  refused  to  resign  on 
account  of  what  was,  after  all,  merely  a  trick,  and  went  ahead 
with  their  proposals. 

Every  hint  as  to  the  scope  of  the  Irish  measure  was  eagerly 
taken  up  by  the  people  and  discussed  again  and  again. 
When,  in  October  of  1911,  Chief  Secretary  Birrell  stated  that 
the  Home  Rule  Bill  would  bring  into  existence  in  Ireland  an 
Irish  Parliament  consisting  of  two  chambers,  and  having  full 
power  and  control  over  all  purely  Irish  concerns,  the  highest 
hopes  were  raised  in  Ireland,  and  never  before  had  the  out- 
look appeared  to  be  so  promising.  Even  those  who  were 
most  opposed  to  the  methods  of  the  Parliamentary  Party, 
owing  to  their  conviction  that  the  English  would  never  give 
Ireland  her  legislative  independence,  were  forced  to  remain 
silent  and  await  the  outcome.  Many  of  them  even  expressed 
the  opinion  that  it  was  possible  that  the  English  at  last  meant 
to  do  the  right  thing,  and  that  the  Bill  would  at  least  be  of 
value  as  a  stepping  stone  to  something  better  in  the  future. 
These  hopes  were  brought  to  the  highest  pitch  of  anticipation 
when  Premier  Asquith  announced  that  the  Bill  would  be 
introduced  in  the  February  or  March  of  1913,  and  Mr.  Red- 
mond, in  the  course  of  a  public  speech,  assured  the  Irish 


72    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


people  that  the  Bill  would  be  one  that  would  in  every  way  be 
satisfactory  to  the  Irish  Nationalists. 

The  Bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
April  11,  1912,  Premier  Asquith  being  its  sponsor.  Up  to 
the  afternoon  of  its  introduction  practically  nothing  of  impor- 
tance regarding  its  provisions  had  been  permitted  to  leak 
out.  When  its  scope  became  fully  known,  there  was  intense 
disappointment  among  all  classes  in  Ireland.  The  pledge 
given  by  Mr.  Birrell  and  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Redmond, 
already  referred  to,  were  recalled  with  not  a  little  bitterness, 
when  it  was  found  that  neither  had  been  fulfilled.  The  chief 
defects  of  the  measure  have  already  been  pointed  out,  and 
the  people,  who  had  had  time  to  imbibe  much  of  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Sinn  Feiners,  were  disappointed  at  the  very  limited 
amount  of  power  that  the  Bill  granted  to  Ireland.  The 
clauses  providing  that  the  British  Government  should  hold 
an  absolute  veto  over  every  act  of  the  Irish  Parliament, 
whether  pertaining  to  purely  Irish  affairs  or  not,  and  that 
all  the  taxes  were  to  be  gathered  by  English  officials  and 
turned  over  to  the  British  treasury,  were  keenly  resented. 

At  the  same  time  it  was  agreed  that  the  Bill  was  better 
than  nothing  at  all,  and  that  it  would  mean  the  insertion  of 
the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge.  Even  if,  as  one  Irishman  re- 
marked, compared  with  something  it  was  nothing,  compared 
with  nothing  it  was  something.  It  was  realized  that  there 
was  room  in  the  measure  for  building  up,  and  that  the  mere 
presence  of  an  Irish  Parliament  in  Dublin  would  put  new  life 
and  spirit  into  the  people  and  strengthen  them  for  the  secur- 
ing of  the  complete  independence  of  the  country.  While  the 
Sinn  Feiners  and  other  kindred  organizations  held  this  view, 
there  were  others  who  believed  that,  with  a  few  improvements 
that  could  be  secured  later,  the  Bill  would  confer  sufficient 
power  on  Ireland  to  enable  her  to  regain  something  of  her 
old  place  in  the  world,  even  though  remaining  an  integral 
portion  of  the  British  Empire.  It  is  quite  possible  that  those 
who  were  of  this  opinion  were  in  the  majority  in  the  country. 
What  is  certain  is,  that  no  one  believed  in  the  assertion  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  73 


Mr.  Redmond  that  the  Bill  offered  a  final  settlement  of  Irish 
claims,  and  that  it  was  practically  the  unanimous  opinion  of 
Nationalists  of  every  shade  of  opinion  that  the  Bill  should  be 
accepted  in  spite  of  its  very  obvious  defects. 

There  was,  however,  one  section  of  the  British  electorate 
of  the  contrary  opinion,  who  refused  to  accept  the  Bill  under 
any  consideration,  who  declared  that,  if  the  Government 
persisted  in  passing  it,  they  would  declare  war  on  the  Empire, 
would  ask  the  assistance  of  the  German  Emperor,  and  would 
plunge  the  entire  country  into  civil  war.  Needless  to  add, 
these  were  the  English  Tories  and  the  Irish  Protestant  Orange- 
men, both  parties  under  the  leadership  of  Sir  Edward  Carson. 


CHAPTER  XII 


Carson  and  his  Volunteers 

IT  has  been  stated  that  one  of  the  main  contributory 
causes  of  the  Rebellion  of  1916  was  the  action  taken  by 
Sir  E.  Carson  when  he  and  his  Tory  colleagues  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  they  could  no  longer  repose  their  con- 
fidence in  "constitutional"  methods  to  defeat  remedial  legis- 
lation for  Ireland.  The  defeat  of  the  Lords  and  the  apparent 
determination  of  the  Liberals  to  proceed  with  the  legislation 
they  had  announced,  had  forced  upon  the  Unionists  the  con- 
viction that  they  had  been  beaten  in  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment. Thereupon  they  determined  that  they  would  try  other 
methods. 

Some  of  the  reasons  why  the  Tories  and  their  supporters 
objected  to  the  granting  of  a  measure  of  freedom  to  Ireland, 
however  mean  and  halting  it  might  be,  have  already  been 
indicated.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  these  were 
not  the  reasons  which  the  supporters  of  the  Union  advanced 
in  public.  They  alleged  that  the  Bill  would  place  the  Protes- 
tant minority  in  the  north  of  Ulster  under  the  domination 
of  the  Catholic  majority,  and  that,  as  a  result  of  this,  all  the 
Protestants  would  immediately  be  foully  murdered  in  their 
beds  on  some  dark  night  when  the  police  were  not  looking. 
While  this  seems  grotesque,  it  was,  nevertheless,  the  actual 
main  argument  that  the  Unionists  had  to  advance  against 
the  Bill,  the  real  truth  being,  of  course,  that  they  feared  the 
passage  of  Home  Rule  would  mean  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
privilege  in  Ireland  and  the  granting  of  equal  rights  to  both 
Protestant  and  Catholic.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Bill  con- 
tained clauses  specifically  drafted  for  the  purpose  of  meeting 
this  form  of  argument  and  for  the  absolute  safeguarding  of 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


75 


the  lives  and  the  property  of  the  Protestants  in  Ireland  — 
clauses  which,  in  the  meanness  of  their  insinuations,  were  an 
insult  to  the  fair  and  generous  nature  of  the  Irish  people. 

In  spite  of  this,  and  the  fact  that  the  Liberals  permitted  the 
Bill  to  be  amended  in  various  ways  so  as  to  remove  further 
the  alleged  fears  of  the  Tories,  Mr.  Bonar  Law,  who  had 
taken  the  place  of  Balfour  as  Tory  leader,  announced  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  Ulster  would  prefer  civil  war  to  any 
form  of  Home  Rule,  and  added  the  significant  statement  that, 
if  the  bill  was  persisted  in,  it  would  mean  the  transfer  of  the 
Tories'  allegiance  to  "a  foreign  power."  In  view  of  the  other 
statements  of  Carson,  the  actual  leader  of  his  party,  to  the 
effect  that  they  would  prefer  the  government  of  the  Kaiser  to 
that  of  George  V,  if  Home  Rule  were  enacted,  there  was  little 
doubt  left  as  to  what  "foreign  power"  was  meant. 

Then,  as  a  last  resort  and  a  sop  to  the  Tories,  the  Govern- 
ment made  the  indefensible  suggestion  that  Ireland  be  par- 
titioned, and  that  those  counties  of  Ulster  opposed  to  the 
Bill  be  cut  out  from  its  scope.  It  was  only  to  be  expected 
that  this  proposal  should  arouse  a  storm  of  protest  in  Ireland. 
The  people  of  Ireland  very  rightly  held  that  every  part  of 
the  four  Provinces  was  part  of  Ireland;  that  there  could  be  no 
division  of  Ireland,  and  that  to  set  up  two  separate  and  dis- 
tinct methods  of  government  in  one  country  was  but  to  make 
the  situation  in  Ireland  more  complicated  and  more  dangerous 
and  still  further  from  a  settlement.  Besides,  to  call  upon  the 
most  highly  taxed  country  in  Europe  to  support  two  distinct 
governments  simultaneously,  while  contributing  also  to  the 
Imperial  Exchequer,  was  little  less  than  insanity.  Yet  Mr. 
Redmond  and  his  party  accepted  the  proposal,  and  agreed 
to  the  partition  of  the  country.  The  offer  was  promptly  and 
scornfully  rejected  by  the  Unionists,  who  again  expressed 
their  determination  not  to  permit  any  part  of  Ireland  to  have 
a  Government  of  its  own,  whether  that  part  should  or  should 
not  include  those  counties  of  Ulster  where  the  Tories  had  a 
majority  of  the  vote.  Thus  matters  were  once  more  at  a 
deadlock. 


76    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


In  the  meantime  Carson  had  been  busy  in  another  direc- 
tion. He  had  made  a  spectacular  descent  upon  Belfast,  the 
capital  of  the  North,  and  had  there  formed  his  League  of 
Covenanters,  fashioned  after  those  who  had  once  figured  in 
the  history  of  Scotland.  He  immediately  began  the  gathering 
together  of  an  army  to  resist  by  force  the  designs  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. This  was  the  birth  of  the  new  Volunteer  movement. 
By  an  efficient  publicity  campaign,  carried  on  with  enthusiasm 
by  the  Northcliffe  papers,  the  movement  was  bolstered  up 
and  subsidized,  until  it  assumed  proportions  that  were  actu- 
ally menacing.  A  fund  of  $5,000,000  was  subscribed,  and 
Sir  E.  Carson  declared  in  the  Commons,  and  not  without 
the  best  of  reason,  that  the  entire  Unionist  party  in  England 
and  Ireland  was  at  the  back  of  his  Volunteers  and  would 
support  them  in  armed  rebellion  in  Ulster.  This  blatant  and 
rampant  declaration  of  treason  on  the  part  of  Carson  and 
those  who  followed  his  flag,  was  laughed  at  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  by  the  Liberal  Press. 

Yet  there  was  no  possible  doubt  that  the  situation  in  Ulster 
had  become  serious.  While  it  is  very  probable  that  the 
leaders  of  the  "civil  war"  movement  were  merely  playing  a 
game  of  bluff  in  order  to  scare  the  Government  and  turn  the 
tide  of  popular  opinion  in  their  favor  at  the  next  election, 
their  inflammatory  speeches  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  left  unmolested  by  the  Government  had  a  serious  effect 
on  those  of  their  followers  in  Ulster  who  accepted  at  its  face 
value  all  that  had  been  told  to  them.  Over  and  over  again 
the  Tories  demanded  thai  the  Government  appeal  to  the 
people,  being  under  the  belief  that  their  warlike  preparations 
would  lead  the  people  to  believe  in  their  threats  and  vote 
against  the  Home  Rule  Bill.  When  it  was  announced  by 
Bonar  Law,  however,  that  the  Tories  would  refuse  to  accept 
the  Bill  even  in  the  event  of  the  country  deciding  in  favor  of 
it,  the  Government  decided  they  would  not  make  an  appeal 
to  the  country,  that  they  had  their  duly  elected  majority,  and 
that  they  would  go  ahead  with  the  work.  Bonar  Law's 
declaration  merits  special  attention  in  view  of  subsequent 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  77 


» events.  As  leader  of  the  Tory  Party,  he  declared  that  con- 
stitutional government,  or  government  by  the  majority  of  the 
people,  was  dead  in  England,  in  so  far  as  he  and  his  party 
were  concerned.  Force,  and  force  alone,  was  to  decide  the 
settlement  of  the  Irish  question. 

In  October,  1913,  Bonar  Law  solemnly  declared  that  the 
passage  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  would  mean  the  shedding  of 
blood.  He  said  that  they  had  an  army  in  Ulster  that  would 
accept  no  compromise,  that  they  had  all  the  guns  they  needed, 
and  that  they  would  be  able  to  secure  the  services  of  some  of 
the  leading  generals  in  the  British  army.  He  also  boasted 
that  there  was  not  a  regiment  in  the  army  that  would  fire  a 
shot  against  the  rebels  of  Ulster;  that  there  was  not  a  vessel 
in  the  navy  that  would  bombard  them,  no  matter  what  the 
orders  were  that  the  Government  might  issue.  He  also 
hinted  that,  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst  with  the  rebels, 
they  would  be  able  to  secure  the  services  of  Germany,  that 
the  Kaiser  would  assist  them,  and  that  the  persecution  of  the 
Ulster  rebels  would  be  the  signal  for  the  downfall  of  the 
British  Empire.  These  statements,  that  would  have  caused 
so  much  sensation  and  indignation  had  they  been  uttered  by 
an  Irishman,  were  laughed  at  by  the  Government,  and  the 
Liberal  newspapers  waxed  witty  at  the  expense  of  the 
Carsonites. 

While  this  was  being  done,  the  people  of  Ireland  outside  of 
Ulster  were  remarkably  calm.  While  there  were  few  who 
failed  to  see  the  danger  of  the  situation,  all  felt  that  they 
were  perfectly  competent  to  handle  whatever  situation  might 
arise  after  the  passage  of  Home  Rule.  It  is  certain  that  they 
were  not  in  the  least  disturbed  at  the  prospect  of  the  British 
Empire  being  overthrown  by  the  men  of  Ulster.  The  Irish 
who  were  able  to  think  outside  of  the  limits  prescribed  by  the 
United  Irish  League,  the  electoral  machine  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary Party,  were  of  the  opinion  that,  as  soon  as  the 
Ulster  Protestants  got  rid  of  the  delusions  into  which  their 
English  leaders  had  beguiled  them,  they  would  be  on  the 
side  of  Ireland,  and  fighting  for  Ireland  as  determinedly  as 


78    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  Nationalists  themselves.  At  the  same  time  they  did  not 
ignore  the  danger  of  the  situation,  and  it  soon  became  obvious 
that  a  crisis  was  at  hand. 

The  boast  of  the  Tories  that  they  had  the  army  at  their 
back  was  soon  verified  in  a  manner  as  startling  as  it  was 
dramatic.  The  Tory  members  of  Parliament  began  to  absent 
themselves  from  the  sittings  in  Westminster,  evidently  realiz- 
ing that  they  had  nothing  to  gain  there,  and  went  over  to 
Ulster,  where  they  joined  the  Volunteers  and  posed  before 
the  moving  picture  cameras  for  the  benefit  of  the  Northcliffe 
papers.  The  fact  that  the  Ulster  Volunteers  had  been  drilling 
for  months  with  broom  handles  had  made  them  the  subject 
of  ridicule  in  the  British  Liberal  press,  but  this  humor  became 
rather  worn  when  the  broom  handles  were  exchanged  for 
actual  rifles.  These  riflos  were  imported  from  America  and 
from  Germany,  while  the  Birmingham  Small  Arms  Company 
also  supplied  the  would-be  insurgents  with  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion. Gun-running  along  the  Ulster  coast  became  a  popular 
sport,  and  the  newspapers  were  repeatedly  filled  with  the 
exploits  of  the  Ulstermen.  Rifles  were  imported  by  the  thou- 
sands, machine  guns  followed,  and  a  most  elaborate  and  highly 
organized  military  machine  was  gradually  being  perfected 
under  the  eyes  of  the  British  Government,  with  its  knowledge 
and  tacit  consent,  and  without  any  interference.  There  is 
little  room  for  wonder  that  the  Carsonites  were  jubilant,  and 
that  they  became  more  and  more  arrogant  as  the  days  went 
by.  The  Government  continued  to  giggle  in  its  sleeve,  and 
the  arms  continued  to  pour  in. 

Before  the  end  of  1913  there  had  arisen  in  Ireland  a  situa- 
tion that  was  fraught  with  considerable  danger.  On  the  one 
hand  was  the  Parliamentary  Party,  allied  heart  and  soul  with 
the  British  Liberals  and,  like  them,  affecting  to  scorn  the 
preparations  made  by  the  men  who  were  led  by  Carson. 
They  had  all  their  faith  pinned  on  the  passage  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill,  and  affected  to  believe  that  all  the  guns  and 
ammunition  imported  into  Ulster  were  all  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  impressing  the  British  voter.    On  the  other  side  were  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  79 


Unionists,  English  and  Irish,  who  stated  that  they  had  no 
longer  any  use  for  the  British  Parliament,  that  they  would 
pin  their  faith  on  the  doctrine  of  physical  force,  and  would 
rise  in  armed  rebellion  if  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  signed  by 
the  British  monarch.  Between  the  two  were  the  people  of 
Ireland,  strangely  divided  as  to  what  to  do,  yet  trusting  that 
the  Ulster  Volunteers  would  come  to  their  senses  and  join 
with  them  in  the  common  task  of  rebuilding  the  nation, 
instead  of  selling  themselves  for  the  sorry  purpose  of  plucking 
out  of  the  fire  the  chestnuts  of  the  English  nobles  and  Com- 
moners who  had  property  in  Ireland  and  were  afraid  that 
their  rent-rolls  might  be  curtailed  under  a  native  legislature. 

Up  to  the  end  of  1913  the  work  of  organizing  the  Ulster 
Volunteers  continued.  Nothing  that  could  be  done  to  inflame 
the  passions  of  the  Orangemen  against  their  fellow-Irishmen 
was  left  undone.  The  threat  of  Germany  was  repeated  again 
and  again,  and  there  were  well-defined  and  uncontradicted 
reports  to  the  effect  that  Carson  had  his  ambassador  in 
Berlin,  making  the  necessary  negotiations  for  assistance  from 
the  Germans  when  the  time  should  come,  and  had  even 
himself  visited  the  Kaiser.  Still  the  Government  remained 
inactive.  Cannons,  large  and  small,  were  imported;  armored 
automobiles  were  brought  into  Ulster;  50,000  men,  it  was 
said,  were  well  armed  and  equipped;  all  the  machinery  of  a 
Provisional  Government  was  prepared;  tents,  baggage,  ambu- 
lance wagons,  regiments  of  cavalry,  corps  of  motor  cycle 
scouts  and  dispatch  riders  —  everything,  in  fact,  that  could 
add  to  the  efficiency  of  the  "rebel"  forces,  was  brought  into 
being.  Disloyalty  was  sown  broadcast  in  the  British  army. 
The  English  Tory  aristocracy  entered  with  enthusiasm  into 
the  treason.  Lord  Northcliffe,  Lord  Londonderry,  Lord 
Abercorn,  Lord  Willoughby  de  Broke,  Lord  Roberts,  and  a 
score  more  of  the  representatives  of  the  titled  and  privileged 
class  entered  with  Sir  Edward  Carson  into  the  plot.  At  last 
the  situation  became  such  that  the  Liberals  decided  it  was 
time  to  take  some  action,  and  they  ordered  certain  of  the 
regiments  quartered  at  the  Curragh,  in  County  Kildare,  to 


80    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


proceed  to  Ulster  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  His  Majesty's 
Government.  The  officers  of  the  regiments  in  question 
promptly  mutinied. 

The  mutiny  at  the  Curragh  had  a  profound  effect  through- 
out both  Ireland  and  England.  The  Liberals  were  thunder- 
struck. The  Tories  were  jubilant.  They  had  made  good 
their  threats  that  the  army  would  refuse  to  take  action  against 
them,  and  that,  as  soon  as  they  declared  their  Provisional 
Government,  they  would  have  the  support  of  all  the  British 
troops  quartered  in  Ireland.  The  resignation  of  General 
French  (who  later  was  eager  for  Irish  soldiers  to  assist  him  in 
Flanders),  followed  by  that  of  General  Ewart,  and  the  threat 
that  many  more  would  follow  if  the  Ulster  rebels  were  mo- 
lested, caused  another  sensation.  The  Government  decided 
that  it  was  not  the  time  to  take  action,  allowed  the  mutineers 
and  the  traitors  to  have  their  own  way,  and  settled  down  once 
more  to  their  task  of  trying  to  kill  the  Carson  Army  by  quips 
in  their  daily  and  weekly  papers. 

But,  while  this  was  being  done  and  the  general  muddle  was 
becoming  more  and  more  involved,  there  were  some  men  who 
were  not  idle.  The  men  who  had  never  trusted  in  England's 
promise  of  justice  to  Ireland  had  been  watching  the  course 
of  events  with  a  keener  interest  than  anyone  else.  These 
men  had  never  lost  their  conviction  that  well-phrased  pleas 
for  justice  would  never  influence  English  minds.  England 
would  grant  Ireland  only  what  she  feared  to  refuse.  To 
expect  altruism  from  a  foreign  government  was  foolish.  In 
the  manner  in  which  the  Ulster  Volunteers  organized,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  Government  dealt  with  the  situation, 
they  saw  the  way  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  own  plans. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


The  Irish  Volunteers 


OVEMBER,  1913,  will  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new 


epoch  in  the  history  of  Ireland.    Towards  the  end 


of  that  month  the  Irish  Volunteers  sprang  into  being, 
spread  throughout  the  land  with  a  rapidity  that  amazed  even 
the  most  ardent  and  enthusiastic,  and  presented  the  British 
Government  with  a  new  angle  to  a  situation  that  was  fast 
slipping  from  its  control  —  if,  in  fact,  it  had  ever  at  any  time 
had  actual  control  of  the  position  of  affairs  in  Ireland. 

On  Wednesday  evening,  November  26,  1913,  the  Irish 
National  Volunteers  were  organized.  The  inaugural  meeting 
was  held  in  the  historic  Rotunda,  at  the  corner  of  Parnell  and 
O'Connell  Streets,  not  in  the  actual  building  itself  but  in 
the  large  skating  rink  just  north  of  it  and  in  the  Rotunda 
Gardens.  There  had  been  but  little  publicity  given  to  the 
meeting.  The  Irish  Independent  and  the  Freeman  s  Journal 
practically  ignored  the  requests  that  were  made  to  them  to 
publish  notice  of  the  coming  meeting  in  their  news  columns. 
The  meeting  was  scheduled  to  begin  at  eight  o'clock,  and  at 
half -past  seven  a  heavy  drizzle  of  rain  settled  down  over  the 
city,  accompanied  by  a  thick,  chilling  fog  that  hung  like  a 
blanket  over  everything.  Yet  at  half-past  six  the  approach 
to  the  Rotunda  Rink  was  packed  with  a  vast  crowd  of  men, 
waiting  in  quiet  and  orderly  manner  for  the  doors  to  be 
opened.  There  were  a  few  women  there  also,  but  they  were 
there  in  the  role  of  sightseers,  and  took  no  active  part  in  the 
meeting. 

Inside  the  great  rink  all  was  bustle  and  animation  for  two 
or  more  hours  before  the  opening  of  the  doors.  The  men 
who  had  charge  of  the  arrangements,  practically  every  one 
of  whom  was  a  member  of  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood, 


82    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


had  brought  to  the  meeting  5000  enlistment  blanks  for  dis- 
tribution among  the  men  in  the  audience.  These  were  handed 
out  in  books  of  one  hundred  each  to  the  stewards,  who  were 
directed  to  return  the  filled-in  blanks  to  the  secretaries  after 
the  meeting.  The  entire  hall  was  brilliantly  lighted,  and  a 
large  platform  had  been  erected  on  the  north  side  with  seats 
for  five  thousand  people  facing  it  on  three  sides. 

That  meeting  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  ever  held  in 
the  City  of  Hurdles.  From  Glasnevin  and  Drumcondra  on 
the  north,  from  Phibsboro  on  the  west,  from  Howth  and  Clon- 
tarf  and  Dollymount  on  the  east,  and  from  Terenure,  Rath- 
mines,  and  Inchicore  on  the  south,  thousands  of  men  and  lads 
traveled  through  the  city  to  the  Rotunda.  From  Finglas  and 
Dalkey  and  Kingstown  and  Bray  they  came,  and  from  every 
side  and  corner  of  the  ancient  city  itself.  Young  men  and 
boys,  old  men,  men  married  and  single,  marched  through  the 
fog  and  the  drizzle,  singing  and  laughing,  happy  as  only  a 
Dublin  crowd  can  be  happy  when  it  chooses,  and  one  and  all 
animated  with  the  same  thought  — that  after  months  and 
years  of  inaction  there  was  at  last  going  to  be  something 
practical  done,  that  the  call  to  arms  had  been  sounded,  and 
that  they  were  there  to  answer  the  call. 

At  seven-thirty  the  doors  were  thrown  open  and  the  im- 
mense crowd  surged  in,  filled  with  enthusiasm  but  yet  without 
disorder.  As  if  by  magic,  the  five  thousand  empty  seats  were 
filled,  and  still  the  men  marched  through  the  doors,  not  in 
twos  or  threes  but  in  a  steady  and  seemingly  never-ending 
stream.  When  the  order  to  close  the  doors  was  carried  out, 
the  immense  throng  that  gathered  outside  in  the  gardens 
bore  down  the  doors  by  sheer  weight,  the  woodwork  on  both 
sides  being  also  torn  from  its  place.  Despite  the  inclement 
weather  conditions  prevailing  outside,  those  who  were  unable 
to  gain  access  to  the  rink  remained  in  the  gardens,  striving 
to  gain  some  indication  of  what  was  being  done  inside  and 
cheering  when  those  inside  cheered. 

A  rather  illuminating  incident  took  place  some  little  time 
before  the  meeting  started.    The  police  authorities,  not  think- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  83 


ing  that  the  matter  was  one  of  any  importance,  detailed  two 
officers  to  guard  the  gates.  When  the  proportion  of  the 
gathering  was  borne  slowly  in  on  these  representatives  of  an 
alien  law,  they  telephoned  for  assistance,  with  the  result 
that  reinforcements  were  hurried  to  the  scene.  One  of  the 
new  arrivals,  who  had  apparently  become  possessed  of  the 
idea  that  the  meeting  was  an  illegal  one  and  that  they  had 
been  sent  to  suppress  it,  lost  no  time  in  asserting  himself.  He 
alighted  from  a  trolley  car  at  the  moment  that  a  number  of 
men  marched  up  to  the  gates  from  O'Connell  street.  The 
officer  placed  his  burly  form  square  in  the  entrance  and  per- 
emptorily ordered  the  men  to  go  back.  One  young  lad,  who 
had  a  hurley1  on  his  shoulder,  waved  the  weapon  in  the  air 
and  commanded  the  policeman  to  get  out  of  the  way.  In  a 
second  the  officer  was  surrounded  by  angry  men,  and  it  was 
only  the  prompt  intervention  of  his  comrades  on  his  behalf 
that  saved  him  the  necessity  of  taking  a  trip  to  the  nearest 
hospital.  The  word  was  hurriedly  whispered  to  him  that 
there  were  "thousands  more  of  'em  inside,"  and  he  took  his 
place  in  the  gutter  with  his  wiser  comrades. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  utmost  enthusiasm  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  meeting.  Eoin  MacNeill,  Professor  of 
the  National  University  and  Vice-President  of  the  Gaelic 
League,  presided  over  the  meeting,  and  made  a  stirring 
appeal.  A  number  of  other  speeches  added  to  the  interest, 
but  the  real  work  was  done  by  the  stewards  who  distributed 
the  recruiting  blanks  among  the  men  in  the  rink.  As  has 
been  mentioned,  there  were  5000  of  these  on  hand,  and  it  was 
expected  that  this  number  would  be  sufficient  for  some  con- 
siderable time  to  come.  The  men  who  planned  the  meeting 
would  have  been  well  satisfied  if  they  had  been  able  to 
secure  5000  Volunteers  in  three  months.  The  actual  fact  was 
that  within  two  hours  there  was  not  a  single  unsigned  blank 
to  be  had  in  the  rink.  In  that  period  of  time  the  stewards 
had  disposed  of  every  blank  that  had  been  received  from  the 
printers,  and  the  men  who  had  not  been  able  to  secure  blanks 

1  A  stick  used  in  hurling. 


84    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


wrote  out  their  pledges  on  the  backs  of  envelopes,  the  margins 
of  newspapers,  and  anything  else  on  which  the  words  could 
be  inscribed. 

The  only  pledge  that  was  asked  of  the  Volunteers  was  that 
they  would  do  everything  to  secure  and  establish  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  Ireland.  They  were  not  asked  to  affiliate 
themselves  with  any  other  organization,  or  in  any  way  to  take 
sides  with  others  than  their  fellow- Volunteers.  The  keynote 
of  all  the  speeches  that  were  made  was,  that  it  was  not  the 
intention  of  the  Volunteers  to  band  themselves  together  in 
opposition  to  the  men  of  Ulster,  or  to  oppose  any  party,  any 
section,  or  any  nationality.  There  was  nothing  said  against 
Mr.  Redmond  or  the  Parliamentary  Party.  There  was  no 
attack  on  England,  either  the  people  of  that  country  or  their 
government.  All  that  they  were  there  to  take  care  of  was 
Ireland  —  to  unite  together  in  arms  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
all  that  lay  in  their  power  to  further  the  interests  of  Ireland, 
to  protect  Ireland  against  any  aggressor,  and  to  assist  the 
promised  Irish  Parliament  in  the  carrying  out  of  its  legal 
acts. 

There  was,  however,  one  little  feature  of  the  meeting  that 
did  not  escape  notice,  and  which  had  a  significance  all  its 
own.  Every  one  of  the  stewards  and  officials  at  the  meeting 
wore  on  the  lapel  of  his  coat  a  small  silken  bow,  the  center 
of  which  was  white,  while  on  one  side  was  green  and  on  the 
other  side  orange.  The  green,  white,  and  orange  had  long 
been  recognized  as  the  colors  which  the  Irish  Republican 
Brotherhood  had  adopted  as  the  Irish  national  banner,  of 
which  more  will  be  said  later  on.  The  green,  white,  and  orange 
prevailed  at  the  Volunteer  meeting,  and  there  were  few  if 
any  present  to  whom  it  did  not  recall  the  old  Fenian  motto: 
"Only  the  Gael  can  make  laws  for  the  Gael." 

A  scene  remarkable  in  its  intense  and  unbounded  enthusi- 
asm marked  the  close  of  the  meeting.  When  it  was  announced 
that  over  5000  men  had  that  night  joined  hands  once  more  to 
take  up  arms  for  the  defense  of  Ireland,  the  cheer  that  rang 
out  from  the  seven  thousand  persons  present  might  almost 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  85 


literally  have  rent  the  roof.  It  was  a  cheer  that  was  echoed 
later  throughout  the  land,  that  increased  in  volume  with  the 
passing  of  the  days,  that  burst  forth  in  renewed  vigor  on  that 
morning  of  April  24,  1916,  when  the  tricolors  of  the  Irish 
Republic  flew  from  the  flagstaff  of  the  Dublin  Post  Office. 

Two  days  later,  on  Friday,  November  28,  an  Arms  Act, 
prohibiting  the  importation  into  Ireland  of  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion of  all  descriptions,  was  proclaimed  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  promulgated  by  the  British  Liberal 
Cabinet  and  signed  with  the  seal  of  King  George  V. 

At  the  risk  of  recapitulating,  we  must  again  state  that  these 
facts  must  be  borne  carefully  in  mind  by  those  who  wish  to 
gain  a  clear  and  unbiased  view  of  the  Irish  Revolution.  For 
two  years  the  Orangemen,  led  and  financed  by  English 
Members  of  the  Imperial  Parliament,  had  been  drilling, 
importing  arms,  cannon,  machine  guns,  ammunition,  and  every 
other  engine  of  war;  had  openly  preached  armed  defiance  of 
the  decrees  of  the  Government;  had  stated  that  they  would 
call  the  German  Emperor  to  their  aid;  had,  in  a  word,  com- 
mitted the  most  flagrant  treason  in  every  sense  of  the  term, 
and  had  been  allowed  to  do  so  undisturbed.  The  British 
Army  generals  and  officers,  who  were  directly  and  indirectly 
responsible  for  the  mutiny  at  the  Curragh,  had  been  allowed 
to  go  unpunished;  one  concession  after  another  had  been 
granted  by  the  Liberals  to  the  Carsonites,  until  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  had  been  whittled  down  to  a  shadow,  and  the  Irish 
people  had  sat  idly  by,  law-abiding  and  peaceful,  waiting  for 
the  fulfillment  of  the  many  long-deferred  promises  that  had 
been  made  to  them.  All  of  this  time  Mr.  Redmond  and  his 
colleagues  had  voted  with  and  thereby  sustained  in  power 
the  Liberal  Government,  until  it  had  become  a  common  taunt 
in  the  mouths  of  the  Tories  that  the  Government  had  been 
"saved  by  the  Irish." 

Yet,  within  forty-eight  hours  after  the  formation  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  who  expressed  no  menace  to  anyone  and  no 
word  of  treason,  and  who  desired  only  to  secure  the  protec- 
tion of  their  own  people,  that  same  Liberal  Government,  still 


86    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


aided  by  the  Irish  Parliamentarians,  proclaimed  an  Arms 
Act  throughout  the  land,  making  it  legally  impossible  to 
obtain  arms  for  these  Volunteers.  The  Carsonites,  the  avowed 
and  bitter  enemies  of  the  Government  and  of  the  Irish  Party, 
had  been  allowed  two  full  years  in  which  to  prepare,  two  years 
during  which  there  had  been  no  such  thing  as  an  Irish  Volun- 
teer in  the  land;  but  immediately  the  Nationalists  sought  to 
exercise  the  same  right  to  bear  arms,  a  "friendly"  govern- 
ment —  which,  one  might  have  imagined,  would  have  looked 
to  them  for  assistance  —  and  the  men  who  claimed  to  repre- 
sent them  in  the  British  Parliament,  combined  to  take  from 
them  those  rights  which  they  had  tacitly  granted  to  the 
Volunteers  of  Ulster.  It  is  scarcely  a  subject  for  wonder  that 
the  people  of  Ireland  began  to  ask  themselves  a  few  pertinent 
questions,  and  to  wonder  who  were  their  foes  and  who  were 
their  friends. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  action  of  the  Government  was 
to  stimulate  recruiting  in  the  Irish  Volunteers  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  movement  spread  throughout  the  country 
like  wildfire.  North,  west  and  south  of  Dublin  the  move- 
ment spread  until  the  campaign  became  nation-wide.  With 
an  ardor  that  few  had  believed  possible,  the  men  of  the  nation 
flocked  to  the  banner  of  the  Volunteers,  and  night  after  night 
was  spent  in  drilling  and  marching  and  in  the  teaching  of  the 
art  of  the  soldier  to  the  boys  and  men  of  the  Fighting  Race, 
who  had  for  so  many  years  been  forced  into  acquiescence  with 
a  merely  political  propaganda  —  a  propaganda  which  had,  in 
its  last  stage,  degenerated  into  a  mild  milk-and-water  effort 
to  gain  for  Ireland  "freedom"  in  the  shape  of  a  third-rate 
debating  society  masquerading  as  a  National  Parliament. 

Just  what  were  the  objects  the  British  Government  sought  to 
gain  by  its  actions  in  regard  to  the  Volunteers,  and  in  which 
it  was  supported  by  the  votes  of  the  Irish  Party  in  West- 
minster, is  likely  to  remain  one  of  the  inscrutable  mysteries 
of  history.  With  a  total  disregard  of  public  opinion,  they 
did  not  vouchsafe  to  take  the  people  into  their  confidence. 
Even  while  the  Arms  Act  was  in  force,  the  Ulster  Volunteers 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  87 


carried  out  a  number  of  sensational  gun-running  exploits 
under  the  very  eyes  of  the  authorities.  The  Nationalists  were 
forced  to  ask  themselves  why  it  was  that  there  should  be  one 
law  for  the  men  of  Ulster  and  another  for  the  rest  of  Ireland. 
They  wondered  if  the  British  Government  was  sincere  about 
Home  Rule,  or  if  it  was  allowing  the  Tories  to  go  ahead  so 
as  to  have  an  excuse  of  letting  the  Bill  drop.  This,  it  was 
argued  by  some,  would  explain  why  they  were  so  anxious  to 
prevent  the  National  Volunteers  from  securing  arms.  If  the 
Government  were  playing  a  fair  game  with  the  Irish  people, 
why,  it  was  asked,  did  they  proclaim  the  Arms  Act  only  after 
the  Irish  Volunteers  were  organized?  Were  Mr.  Redmond 
and  his  followers  in  the  House  of  Commons  working  merely 
in  the  interests  of  the  British  Empire,  or  were  they  working 
to  secure  legislative  freedom  for  Ireland?  If  the  latter,  why 
was  he  against  the  Irish  Volunteers?  Why  had  he  allowed 
the  Government,  wThich  he  controlled,  to  permit  the  Carson- 
ites  to  arm,  and  then  allowed  that  same  Government  to  pre- 
vent the  rest  of  the  country  from  doing  the  same  thing?  It 
was  well  realized  that  the  Government  had  to  depend  on  him 
for  its  existence.  Firm  action  on  his  part  wTould  either  throw 
the  Government  out  of  office,  wreck  all  its  plans,  and  consign  it 
to  political  oblivion  for  another  generation,  or  would  compel 
that  Government  to  apply  the  law  equally  throughout  the 
whole  of  Ireland.  Answers  to  these  questions  were  not  forth- 
coming, but  the  Volunteers  continued  to  gain  strength,  and 
the  unrest  and  dissatisfaction  throughout  the  country  con- 
tinued to  grow  until,  at  the  end  of  1913,  the  situation  had 
come  to  assume  all  the  proportions  of  a  crisis  pregnant  with 
disaster  for  one  side  or  the  other. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


The  Massacre  of  Bachelor's  Walk 

EVENTS  followed  one  another  with  startling  rapidity 
after  the  formation  of  the  Irish  National  Volunteers. 
Both  in  Ireland  and  England  it  was  felt  that  the 
advent  of  the  year  1914  meant  the  dawn  of  vital  things  for 
Ireland.  The  political  atmosphere  was  charged  with  all  the 
elements  of  storm,  and  it  was  felt  that  the  crisis  that  had 
been  so  long  deferred  could  not  be  held  back  for  another 
twelve  months.  In  the  first  place,  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was 
scheduled  to  pass  into  law  in  the  fall  of  the  year.  That, 
in  itself,  was  sufficient  to  render  inevitable  action  of  some 
sort  by  one  of  the  opposing  sides.  Then,  again,  the  fact  that 
there  were  two  sets  of  Volunteers  in  Ireland,  one  with  a 
declared  purpose  of  civil  war  and  the  other  with  a  temper 
rapidly  rising,  did  not  render  the  situation  any  less  threaten- 
ing or  complicated. 

The  year  had  not  far  advanced  before  it  became  obvious 
that  the  dominating  factor  in  the  situation  promised  to  be 
the  Irish  Volunteers.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  official 
Parliamentary  Party,  which  claimed  to  control  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  Nationalists,  had  first  of  all  frowned  upon  the 
Volunteers,  had  acquiesced  in  the  effort  to  prevent  their 
securing  arms,  and  had  then  done  everything  in  its  power  to 
suppress  the  movement  without  making  its  hostility  too  patent 
to  the  people,  the  Volunteers  continued  to  add  to  their  num- 
bers and  influence  in  every  part  of  the  country,  until  it 
became  obvious  that  they  were  a  force  which  must  be  reck- 
oned with  and  could  no  longer  be  ignored.  It  was  thereupon 
decided  to  try  other  tactics. 

The  actions  of  the  British  Government  had  already  clearly 
shown  that  the  Liberals  did  not  look  with  favor  upon  the 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


89 


Irish  Volunteers,  however  tolerantly  they  may  have  been 
inclined  to  regard  the  Volunteers  of  Sir  Edward  Carson.  In 
fact,  the  manner  in  which  the  Government  had  acted  lent 
color  to  the  rumors  that  were  in  circulation  to  the  effect  that 
the  Government  intended  at  the  last  moment  to  destroy  the 
Home  Rule  Bill,  to  cite  the  existence  of  the  Ulster  Volunteers 
as  an  excuse  for  their  action,  and  to  trust  to  the  fact  that 
these  Volunteers  were  sufficiently  well  trained  and  well  armed 
to  cow  the  rest  of  the  Irish  people  into  an  acceptance  of  their 
fate.  That  this  feeling  became  stronger  with  the  passing  of 
the  days  has  since  been  demonstrated  in  an  unmistakable 
manner,  and  at  the  same  time  there  became  noticeable  a 
growing  feeling  of  discontent  with  the  Parliamentary  Party 
and  with  the  mean  and  halting  Provisions  of  the  Home  Rule 
Bill. 

Mr.  Redmond,  always  an  astute  politician,  was  not  slow 
to  notice  that  the  situation  had  changed  and  that  his  power 
had  weakened.  His  official  newspapers  had  poured  ridicule 
upon  the  Volunteers,  stating  that  they  were  controlled  by  a 
party  of  men  who  had  long  been  discredited  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  and  doing  everything  in  their  power  to  prevent 
the  young  men  of  the  country  from  joining  them.  They 
seemed  to  forget  that  the  Irish  are  naturally  a  martial  people, 
more  prone  to  action  than  to  secret  diplomacy;  that  the  Vol- 
unteers' appeal  to  the  oldest  traditions  of  the  race  was  one 
almost  impossible  to  resist;  that  the  precedent  of  Grattan's 
Volunteers  was  a  most  powerful  argument,  and  that  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  betrayal  at  the  hands  of  the  Liberals  was  gradu- 
ally becoming  a  matter  of  serious  moment  in  the  eyes  of  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Irish  people. 

The  newspaper  campaign  against  the  Volunteers  having 
failed,  still  another  change  of  tactics  was  decided  on.  When 
the  National  Volunteers  were  organized  the  previous  year,  it 
was  publicly  stated  that  the  Provisional  Committee  and  the 
officers  of  the  central  organization  in  Dublin  would  hold 
office  only  until  such  time  as  the  various  branches  of  the 
Volunteers  could  send  delegates  to  a  National  Convention, 


90    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


when  the  delegates  would  elect  their  own  Committee  and  their 
own  officers.  At  the  time  when  the  arrangements  for  the 
holding  of  this  convention  in  the  Rotunda  in  Dublin  were 
almost  completed,  the  entire  country  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  agitation  by  the  sudden  demand,  made  by  Mr.  Redmond 
upon  the  Fro  v  isional  Committee,  that  he  be  permitted  to 
co-opt  to  that  Committee  a  number  of  members  equal  to 
nearly  twice  the  number  of  those  who  at  that  time  composed 
the  committee.  In  his  letter  of  demand  Mr.  Redmond  stated 
that  the  then  governing  body  was  unrepresentative  of  the 
people,  and  that,  as  the  leader  of  the  Irish  Party,  he  had  the 
right  to  the  control  of  the  organization. 

It  is  possible  that,  if  Mr.  Redmond  had  confined  his  demand 
to  an  equal  representation  on  the  committee,  a  great  deal  of 
unpleasantness  might  have  been  avoided.  As  it  was,  the 
fact  that  nothing  less  than  a  clear  and  overriding  majority 
would  satisfy  the  Parliamentary  leader  was  so  very  obvious 
that  the  men  whose  efforts  had  brought  the  Volunteers  into 
being  entered  a  strong  protest  against  so  unreasonable  a 
demand.  It  must  also  be  said  that  these  men  were  sus- 
picious of  the  motives  that  actuated  Mr.  Redmond's  action. 
It  seemed  palpable  to  them  that  he  was  acting  in  concert  with 
the  British  Government,  and  that  it  was  the  hope  of  the 
British  Government  to  disrupt  the  National  Volunteers. 
They,  therefore,  refused  the  demand,  and  said  that  the  matter 
would  be  best  decided  at  the  Convention. 

In  reply  to  this  Mr.  Redmond  made  a  still  more  insistent 
demand  upon  the  Committee,  and  received  a  reply  that  it 
was  the  intention  of  the  Provisional  Committee  to  resign 
office  immediately  the  Convention  met.  They  appealed  to 
Mr.  Redmond,  for  the  sake  of  national  unity,  to  withdraw 
his  demands  and  to  leave  the  election  of  the  Governing 
Committee  and  the  officers  to  the  election  of  the  delegates 
at  the  Convention,  assuring  him  at  the  same  time  that  he 
and  his  party  would  have  an  absolutely  free  hand  at  that 
time  to  do  everything  they  wished  to  secure  the  election  of 
men  who  were  supporters  of  the  Parliamentary  Party. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  91 


Mr.  Redmond's  reply  to  this  was  an  ultimatum.  Ignoring 
the  appeal,  he  served  notice  on  the  Provisional  Committee 
that  they  would  have  at  once  to  agree  to  his  appointing  a 
majority  on  their  committtee,  or  —  and  he  made  the  threat 
positively  and  in  so  many  words  —  he  would  "smash  the 
entire  organization."  As  it  was  known  that  he  had  the  ready 
and  willing  assistance  of  the  British  Government  at  his  com- 
mand for  so  patriotic  a  work  as  the  smashing  of  the  Volun- 
teers, the  Provisional  Committee  considered  that  there  was 
nothing  left  for  them  to  do  but  to  permit  Mr.  Redmond  to 
assume  at  one  and  the  same  time  both  the  command  of  and 
the  responsibility  for  the  Volunteers.  This  was  done,  and 
was  followed  by  an  immediate  splitting  of  the  organization 
into  two  opposing  factions  —  one  consisting  of  the  followers 
of  the  men  who  had  formed  the  Volunteers  in  the  first  place, 
and  the  other  of  those  who  accepted  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Redmond's  nominees  on  the  committee.  At  the  command 
of  Mr.  Redmond  the  proposed  Convention  was  abandoned. 
It  seemed  almost  as  though  the  official  Irish  leader  was  afraid 
of  allowing  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Volunteers  the  exercise 
of  a  vote  in  the  selection  of  their  officers. 

This  split,  however,  did  not  manifest  itself  at  the  time,  the 
members  of  the  enlarged  committee  working  together  in  appar- 
ent harmony  with  one  another.  The  actual  division  of  opinion 
came  about  owing  to  a  different  conception  of  the  scope  of 
the  Volunteers.  It  was  apparently  the  desire  of  Mr.  Red- 
mond, as  expressed  by  his  nominees  on  the  committee,  that 
the  Volunteers  should  not  arm  to  any  extent,  a  fact  which 
gave  further  impetus  to  the  rumors  that  a  betrayal  was 
planned,  with  the  sinister  feature  added  that  the  Parlia- 
mentary Party  was  aiding  and  abetting  that  betrayal.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  section  of  the  Volunteers  that  held  to  the 
ideals  that  gave  birth  to  the  movement  were  determined  that 
the  men  should  be  armed,  and  they  set  about  carrying  that 
determination  into  effect.  This  was  to  be  shown  in  a  tragic 
manner  in  the  middle  of  the  year. 

On  a  cloudless  morning  in  late  July  some  watchers  high  up 


92    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

on  the  Hill  of  Howth  saw  a  white-winged  yacht  bending  its 
way  to  the  harbor  beside  the  village.  One  of  them  had  a 
telescope  to  his  eye,  and,  even  as  he  watched,  he  noticed  a 
small  flag  waving  from  the  landward  side  of  the  vessel. 
Although  the  flag  was  small,  the  man  on  the  hill  saw  through 
his  glass  the  bright  colors  of  the  orange,  white,  and  green 
standing  out  in  bold  relief.  He  said  a  word  to  his  compan- 
ions, and  together  they  ran  along  the  steep  and  stony  path 
that  winds  down  to  the  village.  Within  the  next  few  minutes 
words  of  vital  import  were  being  whispered  over  the  electric 
wires  to  Dublin.  This  was  on  Sunday  morning,  July  26th, 
1914. 

Other  early  risers  remarked  that  morning  that  the  Volun- 
teers were  out  for  an  early  march.  They  passed  along  the 
broad  road  that  winds  beside  the  sea  all  the  way  from  Amiens 
Street  Station  in  Dublin  to  the  foot  of  Howth  Head.  There 
were  not  a  great  many  of  them,  and  they  carried  no  weapons, 
but  they  marched  along  singing  and  whistling  and  obviously 
in  the  best  of  good  humor.  The  morning  was  one  of  those 
warm,  soft  Irish  mornings  that  are  peculiar  to  the  country, 
when  the  sea  and  the  sky  seem  to  blend  together  in  a  tender 
union,  and  the  air  is  laden  with  the  many  perfumes  of  the 
gardens  and  the  fields.  It  was  the  kind  of  morning  that 
might  appropriately  be  given  up  to  dreams  and  the  writing 
of  poetry.  Yet  it  was  on  such  a  day  that  stern  deeds  had 
been  again  and  again  enacted  on  Irish  soil. 

As  the  yacht  drew  up  alongside  of  the  little  pier,  the  con- 
tingent of  Volunteers  swung  around  the  bend,  and  a  rousing 
cheer  broke  simultaneously  from  the  marchers  and  those  on 
the  vessel.  Without  a  moment's  loss  of  time,  hundreds  of 
rifles  and  rounds  of  ammunition  were  unloaded  from  the 
yacht  and  piled  up  on  the  quay.  Here  willing  hands  took 
charge  of  the  rifles,  handing  them  over  to  waiting  lines  of 
men,  each  of  whom  slung  three  or  four  over  his  shoulder. 
The  ammunition  was  also  taken  care  of,  and,  when  the 
yacht  had  been  relieved  of  its  cargo,  the  men  began  their 
march  back  to  Dublin. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  93 


So  far  the  gun-running  exploit  of  the  Volunteers  had  been 
carried  through  with  brilliant  success.  The  arms  had  been 
brought  in,  and  had  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
most  needed  them.  It  is  true  that  one  lone  policeman  at  the 
village  had  attempted  to  stop  the  landing,  but  his  effort  had 
merely  added  the  requisite  touch  of  humor  to  the  proceedings. 
But  the  officer  of  the  law,  who  probably  felt  that  his  dignity 
had  been  outraged,  while  powerless  to  prevent  the  "lawless- 
ness" of  the  Volunteers,  was  not  slow  to  think  of  a  means  of 
preventing  the  arms  being  placed  in  safekeeping.  Thus  it 
happened  that  the  same  telephone  wire  that  only  an  hour  or 
two  previously  had  carried  one  message  to  Dublin,  now  car- 
ried an  urgent  message  of  a  very  different  character. 

The  return  march  of  the  Volunteers  was  a  parade  of  triumph. 
They  carried  their  empty  guns  on  their  shoulders  with  all  the 
pride  of  the  tried  veteran  returning  from  the  field  of  victory. 
As  they  passed  the  people  on  the  roadside,  they  were  greeted 
with  the  cheers  of  hundreds  who  realized  what  had  been  done. 
Hundreds  turned  back  from  their  contemplated  trip  to  Howth, 
and  thus  it  happened  that  a  numerous  and  enthusiastic  com- 
pany of  men  were  soon  marching  towards  Dublin  with  visions 
of  the  freedom  of  Ireland  dancing  before  their  eyes. 

At  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  within  the  borough  of  Fair  view, 
it  was  seen  that  there  were  other  marchers  out  that  morning. 
The  telephone  message  of  the  lone  policeman  had  done  its 
work,  and  a  company  of  the  King's  Own  Scottish  Borderers, 
a  British  regiment  which  had  recently  been  drafted  from 
England  into  the  capital,  had  been  dispatched  to  intercept 
the  Volunteers  and  take  the  arms  from  them.  When  the  two 
bodies  of  men  were  close  together,  the  Scottish  soldiers  came 
to  a  halt  and  spread  across  the  road,  holding  their  loaded 
rifles  at  the  ready.  The  Volunteers  halted  also.  The  British 
officer  thereupon  ordered  that  the  arms  be  turned  over  to  his 
men,  promising  that,  if  this  were  done,  the  Volunteers  would 
be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes  unmolested. 

It  happened,  however,  that  the  Volunteers  preferred  to  take 
the  chance  of  not  returning  to  their  homes  at  all  rather  than 


94    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


surrender  the  guns.  They  intimated  as  much  to  the  captain, 
who  then  told  his  men  to  take  the  guns  from  the  Irishmen. 
In  the  melee  that  followed  the  Volunteers  defended  them- 
selves with  the  butt-ends  of  their  rifles,  and  were  successful 
in  holding  their  ground.  A  number  of  them  held  the  soldiers 
at  bay  until  their  comrades  had  got  a  good  start  along  the 
road  leading  to  Drumcondra,  in  the  northern  section  of  Dublin 
City.  The  defenders  of  the  pass  then  beat  a  strategic  retreat 
themselves,  leaving  the  baffled  soldiery  angry  and  discom- 
fited. Every  rifle  that  had  been  landed  was  taken  safely 
into  the  city  by  the  Volunteers. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  in  Dublin  during  the  day.  The 
news  of  the  exploit  spread  like  wildfire  through  .every  quarter 
of  the  city,  and  the  greatest  jubilation  prevailed.  The  little 
scrimmage  was  looked  on  as  an  initial  victory  over  the  foreign 
garrison,  which,  for  reasons  that  are  abundantly  clear,  was 
always  cordially  hated  by  the  Irish  people.  It  was  obvious, 
also,  that  the  King's  Own  Scottish  Borderers  were  smarting 
under  a  feeling  that  they  had  been  defeated,  and  the  fact 
that  the  men  who  had  beaten  them  carried  only  empty  guns 
did  not  add  to  their  good  humor.  Instead  of  returning  to  the 
city  after  the  incident,  they  decided  to  remain  on  the  Howth 
Road  for  a  time  and  enjoy  the  sea  air.  The  fact  that  they 
seemed  afraid  to  return  through  the  city  soon  became  known 
in  Dublin  and  but  added  to  the  gaiety  of  the  situation. 

In  the  cool  of  the  evening  the  British  warriors  came  march- 
ing back  once  more.  The  city  was  there  to  meet  them.  All 
along  their  line  of  march  they  were  watched  by  the  people, 
and  smiles  were  not  infrequent.  Knowing  the  delicate  sensi- 
bilities of  the  British  redcoat,  however,  no  words  were  ad- 
dressed to  them,  the  people  being  quite  content  to  watch 
them  marching  past,  minus  the  guns  they  had  gone  out  to 
obtain  but  failed  to  bring  back.  At  the  corner  of  Bachelor's 
Walk  and  O'Connell  Bridge,  however,  a  small  boy  made  a 
remark  that  reached  the  ears  of  the  British  officer.  That 
remark  was  not  complimentary,  and  was  also  heard  by  the 
scores  of  people  close  at  hand.    Within  less  than  thirty 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  95 


seconds  the  officer  had  halted  his  detachment,  faced  the  men 
about,  and  at  the  word  of  command  a  volley  of  rifle  bullets 
crashed  into  the  crowd.  This  was  twice  repeated,  while  the 
dazed  and  defenseless  men,  women,  and  children  ran  wildly 
for  shelter.  Then  the  King's  Own  Scottish  Borderers  faced 
around  again  and  resumed  their  march  to  barracks,  leaving 
the  street  littered  with  the  bleeding  bodies  of  the  dead  and 
the  dying. 


CHAPTER  XV 


The  King's  Veto 


HE  killing  of  four  persons  and  the  wounding  of  sixty 


others  by  the  British  troops  at  Bachelor's  Walk  sent 


a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  four  provinces  of  Ireland. 
The  wantonness  of  the  attack,  the  ruthless  firing  of  the  military 
upon  an  unarmed  crowd  of  men,  women,  and  children,  did 
more  to  stimulate  the  Volunteer  movement  than  anything 
else  that  had  happened  since  its  inauguration.  It  was  felt 
by  the  men  of  the  nation  that  the  crisis  had  arrived,  that 
they  would  have  to  face  the  loaded  rifles  of  the  British  again, 
and  they  naturally  decided  that  it  would  be  better  for  them 
to  have  the  means  of  defending  themselves. 

However  inconceivable  it  may  seem,  the  British  Govern- 
ment took  no  effective  steps  to  punish  the  officer  responsible 
for  the  murders.  An  inquiry  was,  of  course,  ordered,  but 
it  came  to  nothing.  Neither  did  Mr.  Redmond  and  his 
colleagues  take  any  steps  to  bring  the  Government  to  a  proper 
realization  of  the  crime  that  had  been  committed,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  it  was  by  virtue  of  their  votes  that  the  Liberals 
held  office.  It  became  more  and  more  obvious  that  the  views 
of  the  Sinn  Feiners,  who  held  that  the  British  Liberals  and 
the  British  Tories  were  alike  enemies  of  the  Irish  people, 
were  further  confirmed  by  the  events  of  each  succeeding  day. 
First,  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  on  its  introduction,  was  a  very 
much  weaker  measure  than  had  been  expected;  then  it  had 
weakened  little  by  little  by  concessions  to  Sir  Edward  Carson 
and  his  Volunteers,  and  the  partition  of  the  country  had 
been  virtually  agreed  on.  Then  the  Ulster  Volunteers  had 
been  allowed  to  arm  and  become  an  efficient  fighting  force, 
while  the  Irish  Volunteers  had  been  prevented  from  securing 
arms,  and  every  effort  had  been  made  by  the  Government, 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OP  1916  97 


assisted  by  Mr.  Redmond,  to  disband  the  organization. 
Lastly,  the  Ulster  Volunteers  had  been  allowed  to  land  arms 
since  the  proclamation  of  the  Arms  Act,  while  the  Irish 
Volunteers  had  been  intercepted  by  the  military,  who,  in 
revenge  for  their  disappointment,  had  massacred  and  wounded 
Irish  men  and  women  and  children  in  the  very  center  of 
Dublin. 

In  conjunction  with  all  of  this,  the  appeal  was  being  con- 
stantly made  by  Mr.  Redmond  and  the  British  Government 
to  forget  old  sores,  to  let  the  history  of  the  past  be  buried  for 
all  time,  to  permit  the  centuries  of  murder,  pillage,  and  out- 
rage committed  by  the  British  on  the  Irish  to  be  consigned  to 
the  limbo  of  forgotten  miseries,  to  renounce  every  ideal  of 
National  liberty,  and  to  accept  instead  a  pitiable  sop  of  paro- 
chial legislation,  which  even  many  of  its  supporters  declared 
would  prove  unworkable  in  practice  and  to  which,  such  as 
it  was,  a  string  was  attached.  Even  while  the  declarations 
of  eternal  friendship  and  lasting  brotherhood  were  being  ex- 
changed between  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  and  the 
leaders  of  the  British  Government,  the  officials  of  that  gov- 
ernment were  doing  everything  that  lay  in  their  power  to 
promote  new  hatreds  and  revive  the  old. 

Yet,  while  apparent  harmony  reigned  in  Westminster,  and 
the  Irish  members  and  their  British  brethren  fraternized  on 
the  Terrace  of  the  Parliament  House  over  their  strawberries 
and  cream,  the  Irish  people,  the  Irish  Volunteers  and  the 
relatives  of  those  who  had  been  killed  and  wounded  in  the 
massacre  were  looking  at  matters  from  a  very  different  angle. 
Even  those  who  had  previously  scouted  the  idea  that  a 
betrayal  was  contemplated  now  began  to  wonder  what  could 
be  at  the  back  of  all  these  ominous  incidents,  and  what  events 
in  the  future  they  might  portend.  Men  went  around  with 
anger  in  their  hearts  and  grim  resolve  in  their  minds.  Vol- 
unteers who  had  hitherto  clung  to  the  Parliamentary  Party 
went  over  to  those  whose  doctrines  had  been  best  expressed 
in  the  landing  of  the  rifles  at  Howth.  The  split  between  the 
two  sections  became  wider  and  more  pronounced,  and  it  was 


98    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


not  long  before  there  were  two  distinct  organizations,  —  one 
under  the  control  of  Mr.  Redmond,  known  as  the  National 
Volunteers,  and  the  other  led  by  men  of  various  organizations, 
who  believed  that  a  final  resort  to  physical  force  was  inevi- 
table, known  as  the  Irish  Volunteers.  From  the  time  of  the 
outrage  on  Bachelor's  Walk,  defections  from  the  ranks  of  the 
National  Volunteers  to  the  Irish  Volunteers  continued  in  an 
ever-increasing  stream.  At  the  time  when  Mr.  Redmond  had 
forced  his  nominees  on  the  Provisional  Committee,  there  were 
over  166,000  men  in  the  Irish  National  Volunteers.  Within  a 
few  weeks  of  that  action  more  than  3000  of  these  had  broken 
away  from  the  Parliamentarians  to  form  the  Irish  Volunteers, 
and  their  strength  continued  to  grow  week  by  week,  while 
that  of  the  National  Volunteers  decreased  correspondingly. 
Professor  Eoin  MacNeill,  who  had  presided  at  the  inaugural 
meeting  in  November,  1913,  was  the  recognized  leader  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  while  Mr.  Redmond  was  supposed  to  be  the 
leader  of  the  others. 

Meanwhile  the  wordy  warfare  continued  across  the  channel, 
the  people  in  Ireland  turning  more  and  more  to  their  own 
country  for  a  settlement  of  the  question  and  leaving  the 
politicians  to  make  the  best  they  could  out  of  the  muddle. 
When  the  British  Parliament  opened  on  February  10,  1913, 
the  Irish  question  was  the  leading  topic  of  the  day.  The 
Home  Rule  Bill  came  up  for  its  first  reading  on  its  third  and 
supposedly  final  trip  through  Parliament,  and  was  passed  by 
a  substantial  majority.  On  the  occasion  of  the  Second  Read- 
ing, on  March  9,  Premier  Asquith  made  his  suggestion  that 
various  sections  of  the  Province  of  Ulster  be  excluded  from 
the  scope  of  the  Bill.  His  proposals  raised  a  storm  of  protest 
throughout  Ireland,  the  reasons  advanced  against  this  latest 
concession  to  the  Carsonites  being  threefold:  first,  the  senti- 
mental objection  that  Ireland  was  Irish  from  the  center  to  the 
four  seas,  and  that  any  partition  was  a  violation  of  the  natural 
rights  of  the  people;  second,  the  grave  injustice  of  expecting 
Ireland  to  support  two  governments;  third,  to  cut  off  a  por- 
tion of  the  northern  province  would  be  but  to  accentuate  and 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  99 


make  permanent  the  artificial  division  that  had  been  created 
by  the  Tory  Party  and  fostered  by  England  for  centuries  pre- 
viously with  the  object  of  driving  a  wedge  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  Mr.  Redmond  accepted  the  proposals;  Sir 
Edward  Carson  refused  to  accept  the  Bill,  even  thus  amended. 

Briefly,  the  proposals  were  that  a  poll  of  the  Parliamentary 
electors  should  be  taken  in  the  counties  of  Ulster,  and  that 
any  county  in  which  a  majority  of  the  voters  so  desired  might 
be  excluded  from  the  operation  of  the  Home  Rule  Act  for  a 
period  of  six  years  from  the  date  of  the  first  sitting  of  the 
Irish  Parliament.  Each  county  so  excluded  would  retain  its 
representation  in  the  United  Kingdom  House  of  Commons. 
This  would  allow  time  for  at  least  two  general  elections  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  five  or  six  years'  experience  of  the 
Dublin  Parliament,  before  Ulster  could  be  asked  to  submit  to 
Irish  Home  Rule;  and  then  its  inclusion  would  take  place 
only  with  the  full  and  mature  consent  of  the  British  electorate. 
As  the  Nationalists  had  a  majority  in  six  of  the  eleven  coun- 
ties (the  cities  of  Belfast  and  Derry  being  counted  as  counties 
for  the  purposes  of  the  vote),  the  Unionists  could  count  only 
on  securing  the  exclusion  of  five  counties  in  all.  The  per- 
centage of  Nationalists  in  Tyrone  was  55,  in  Cavan  81^,  in 
Monaghan  74|-,  in  Donegal  78j%>  in  Fermanagh  56,  and  in 
Derry  56.  The  Unionists,  therefore,  could  at  the  most  count 
only  on  gaining  the  exclusion  of  the  counties  of  Antrim,  Down, 
and  Armagh  and  in  the  cities  of  Londonderry  and  Belfast. 
As  Belfast  is  situated  in  County  Antrim,  and  the  Tory  major- 
ity in  the  City  of  Londonderry  would  probably  be  more 
than  neutralized  by  the  Nationalist  plurality  in  the  country 
districts,  an  attempt  was  evidently  made  to  slur  over  the 
fact  that  six  of  the  nine  counties  in  Ulster  were  Nationalist. 
There  was  even  some  doubt  as  to  the  ability  of  the  Tories  to 
gain  a  clear  majority  in  all  of  these  districts,  as  many  of  the 
Presbyterians  would  certainly  vote  for  Home  Rule. 

It  is  very  probable  that  one  of  the  chief  objections  to  the 
scheme  entertained  by  the  Unionists  was  that  it  would  very 
probably  show  to  the  world  that  they  were  supported  only 


100   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


by  a  very  small  section  of  the  country,  whereas  it  was  always 
their  contention  that  they  represented  the  entire  province  of 
Ulster.  Outside  possibly  one-sixth  of  the  territory  of  that 
Province,  Ulster  was  Nationalist,  and  the  Tories  were  too  well 
aware  of  the  fact  to  evince  any  enthusiasm  for  the  proposed 
vote.  What  they  asked  for  was  the  permanent  exclusion  from 
the  scope  of  the  Home  Rule  Act  of  the  entire  Province,  and 
that  was  more  than  Premier  Asquith  was  willing  to  concede 
at  that  time.  Asquith  promised  that  he  would  embody  his 
proposals  in  an  Amending  Bill,  to  be  introduced  as  soon  as  the 
opportunity  arose. 

Following  this  attempt  at  a  patchwork  compromise,  the 
Curragh  "mutiny  "  threw  the  Tories  into  an  ecstasy  of  delight, 
their  leading  newspapers  openly  espousing  the  cause  of  the 
officers  who  had  refused  to  entrain  for  the  north  of  Ireland 
when  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  Government.  The  Liberals 
went  ahead  as  though  nothing  had  happened,  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  passing  its  second  reading  by  a  vote  of  356  to  276  on 
April  6.  The  third  and  final  reading  was  then  passed  on  May 
25,  the  vote  being  351  to  274,  a  majority  for  the  bill  of  77, 
and  nothing  remained  but  the  Royal  Assent  to  place  the 
measure  on  the  Statute  Book. 

On  June  23  Lord  Crewe,  on  behalf  of  the  Premien,  intro- 
duced in  the  House  of  Lords  the  Amending  Bill.  This  pro- 
vided that  if,  within  three  months  after  the  passing  of  the 
Amending  Bill,  not  less  than  one- tenth  of  the  Parliamentary 
electors  in  any  county  in  Ulster  should  so  petition,  a  poll 
would  be  taken  on  the  question  of  temporary  exclusion.  If  a 
majority  of  the  votes  cast  favored  exclusion,  the  Home  Rule 
Act  would  not  apply  to  that  county  until  the  expiration  of 
six  years,  beginning  on  the  day  of  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  and  then  only  when  this  extended  applica- 
tion of  the  Act  was  ratified  by  the  British  Parliament.  The 
House  of  Lords,  however,  so  radically  amended  the  Amending 
Bill  before  according  it  a  third  reading  on  July  14,  that  no 
expectation  could  be  entertained  of  its  acceptance  by  the 
Commons.      Then,  for  four  days,  July  21-24,  the  leaders 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  101 


met  together  in  secret  conference  in  Buckingham  Palace  in  a 
final  endeavor  to  settle  the  vexed  question.  The  conference 
proved  a  failure,  and  on  July  26  the  military  murders  on 
Bachelor's  Walk  blasted  the  last  hopes  of  peace.  To  render 
the  situation  even  more  critical,  the  fact  leaked  out  that  two 
days  previously,  on  July  24,  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  in  defiance 
of  the  Arms  Act  and  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  police  and 
the  military,  had  successfully  landed  a  consignment  of  25,000 
Mauser  rifles  and  a  million  rounds  of  ammunition  at  Larne 
in  County  Antrim. 

Thus  it  was  that  every  attempt  made  by  the  politicians  to 
settle  the  Irish  question  ended  in  failure.  One  concession  after 
another  in  connection  with  a  bill  that  even  in  its  original 
form  was  studiously  weak  and  mean,  had  not  placated  the 
British  Tories  or  the  Ulstermen  who  allowed  themselves  to  be 
led  by  them.  Conference  had  also  failed.  It  appeared  that 
nothing  could  avert  trouble,  and,  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  the 
British  soldiers  had  committed  a  dastardly,  brutal,  and  cow- 
ardly crime  upon  unoffending  civilians.  It  seemed  that  the 
shadow  of  Home  Rule,  won  by  the  Irish  Parliamentary 
Party  after  so  many  years  of  effort  and  after  so  many  millions 
of  dollars  had  been  voluntarily  contributed  by  the  Irish 
people  throughout  the  world,  was  certain  to  go  into  effect 
and  that  with  it  the  country  was  to  be  torn  by  fratricidal 
strife  to  serve  the  interests  and  the  bigotry  of  a  few  British 
landlords.  It  was  at  this  period  that  the  Tories  chose  to  play 
the  last  card  they  possessed. 

From  about  the  time  of  Queen  Anne  the  King's  Veto  had 
been  one  of  the  least  interesting  curios  of  the  Constitutional 
Museum  in  Britain.  There  was  a  time  when  the  British 
monarch  had  the  power  to  veto,  of  his  own  will,  any  Act  of 
Parliament  that  did  not  exactly  meet  with  his  approval.  For 
centuries  that  power  had  been  a  dead  letter,  and  the  position 
of  the  monarch  had  been  reduced  to  that  of  a  laced  and  uni- 
formed figure-head,  ornamental  perhaps  but  useless.  The 
British  monarch  was  not  allowed  to  make  a  speech  which  was 
not  written  for  him  by  his  Prime  Minister,  and,  in  the  case 


102   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


of  King  George  V,  the  Royal  Person  was  especially  well  taken 
care  of  by  his  Cabinet.  According  to  the  established  rule 
of  British  political  procedure,  even  the  name  of  the  King  could 
not  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  as  a  party  issue,  it 
being  the  tradition  that  the  King  owed  allegiance  to  no  party, 
but  did  as  he  was  told  and  collected  his  salary.  As  to  George 
V  attempting  to  exercise  a  Royal  Veto  over  an  Act  which 
had  been  passed  three  times  by  the  elected  House  of  Commons, 
such  a  suggestion  would  have  been  considered  insane. 

The  Unionist  leaders,  however,  very  seriously  proposed 
that,  as  they  had  been  beaten  by  the  Government  and  the 
electorate  in  every  effort  to  secure  the  defeat  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill,  King  George  should  refuse  to  sign  it.  That  the 
greatest  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  unfortunate 
figure-head  is  certain.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that 
the  power  behind  the  opposition  to  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was 
mainly  the  aristocracy,  who  drew  a  handsome  sum  in  rentals 
annually  from  Ireland,  and  who  feared  that  some  of  this 
might  be  cut  off  if  the  Irish  people  had  anything  to  say  in 
the  control  of  their  own  affairs.  In  addition  to  being  the 
crowned  head  of  the  British  Empire,  King  George  was  also  a 
human  being,  with  frailties  somewhat  above  the  average. 
He  moved  in  aristocratic  circles,  and,  when  the  aristocrats 
began  to  point  out  to  him  the  awful  prospect  they  fancied 
confronted  them,  and  mentioned  that  he  had  the  power  to 
prevent  the  calamity,  the  King  was  naturally  moved.  That 
this  emotion  was  accentuated,  rather  than  relieved,  when 
mention  was  actually  made  of  the  possibility  of  a  boycott  of 
his  Court  by  the  Lords  and  Ladies  of  the  land,  is  also  a  reason- 
able supposition.  In  any  case,  the  fact  remains  that  the  King 
postponed  signing  the  Act  on  the  day  appointed,  thereby  con- 
firming the  last  lingering  doubts  of  the  Irish  people  that 
trouble  of  the  worst  kind  was  at  hand. 

Throughout  the  country  the  bitterest  resentment  was 
expressed;  the  men  flocked  to  the  banner  of  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers, the  leaders  of  whom  seemed  to  be  the  only  ones  who 
had  the  real  national  interests  of  the  nation  at  heart.  Red- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  103 


mond  had  agreed  to  the  partition  of  the  country;  Carson 
was  breathing  fire  and  brimstone,  and  his  men  were  well 
drilled  and  well  armed;  the  policy  of  "No  Rifles"  had  been 
carried  to  the  fullest  extreme  by  the  Parliamentarian  leaders 
of  the  rapidly  dwindling  National  Volunteers;  the  Liberals 
had  gone  to  the  limit  of  concessions  with  Carson,  and  had 
allowed  the  Curragh  mutineers  and  the  murderers  of  the 
King's  Own  Scottish  Borderers  to  go  unpunished;  and  finally 
King  George  had  decided  that  he  could  not  at  the  time  place 
his  royal  signature  at  the  foot  of  the  poor  measure  of  self- 
government  that  had  escaped  the  muddle  and  mismanage- 
ment of  two  years  of  talk.  There  seemed  nothing  left  that 
offered  hope  but  the  policy  of  the  men  who  had  never  com- 
promised; who  had  always  been  on  the  side  of  Ireland  a 
Nation,  One  and  Indivisible;  who  had  never  acknowledged 
the  right  of  an  alien  people  to  make  laws  for  the  Irish,  and 
who  were  now  prepared  to  oppose  force  with  force. 

And  then,  like  a  bolt  out  of  a  clear  sky,  Great  Britain 
became  involved  in  war  with  Germany. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


Under  which  Flag? 


OR  a  decade  and  a  half  there  had  been  talk  of  war 


between   Great  Britain   and   Germany.    During  the 


second  Boer  war  the  question  of  possible  German 
intervention  on  behalf  of  the  two  South  African  Republics 
had  been  persistent,  and  the  grimmest  threats  were  circulated 
in  England  as  to  the  fate  that  awaited  Germany  if  anything 
of  the  kind  was  attempted.  During  the  Liberal  administra- 
tion which  followed,  and  which  was  still  in  office  when  war 
was  declared,  the  Unionist  newspapers  were  never  weary  of 
attacking  the  Government  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
cutting  down  the  naval  and  military  estimates  at  a  time  when 
every  day  brought  nearer  the  outbreak  of  war  with  the  Ger- 
man Empire.  During  the  "silly  season,"  when  the  papers 
were  short  of  "copy,"  scare  stories  became  a  popular  pastime, 
retailing  the  most  startling  stories  of  midnight  visits  of  Ger- 
man Zeppelins  over  the  coastal  towns  of  England;  and 
German  plots  and  German  plans  for  the  sudden  descent  on 
the  "tight  little  island"  were  being  discovered  at  the  rate 
of  at  least  one  per  week.  In  spite  of  all  this,  the  Liberal 
Government  professed  the  most  absolute  contempt  for  the 
machinations  of  the  Kaiser,  declaring  that,  whenever  Germany 
wanted  war,  the  British  Empire  was  ready  to  accept  the 
challenge.  Meanwhile,  the  policy  initiated  under  Edward  VII 
was  continued  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  and  Germany  was  en- 
circled by  a  ring  of  enemies  united  in  defensive  and  offen- 
sive alliances  so  that  the  German  Government  could  watch 
the  steady  progress  of  a  plot  for  the  eventual  destruction  of 
their  country  and  its  interests. 

It  is  not  within  the  province  of  this  history  to  apportion 
the  blame  for,  or  to  trace  the  causes  of,  the  world-wide 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


105 


conflict  which  burst  into  flame  towards  the  end  of  July  and 
in  the  opening  days  of  August,  1914.  The  question  of  impor- 
tance here  is  the  part  that  Ireland  played  in  that  conflict. 
Immediately  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  claim  was  made 
on  Ireland  that  she  should  bear  her  share  in  the  war,  that  she 
should  send  her  sons  to  the  army,  and  should  do  her  utmost 
in  crushing  the  enemies  of  the  British  Empire.  That  she 
did  not  respond  to  this  call,  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt, 
and  it  is  but  fitting  that  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  case  be  now 
taken  into  consideration. 

In  the  first  place,  what  were  the  arguments  advanced  by 
the  British  to  induce  the  Irish  to  take  up  arms  against 
Germany?  It  was  stated  that  the  Irish  should  spring  to 
arms  in  defense  of  the  Empire,  because  Ireland  was  an  integral 
part  of  that  Empire;  that  the  fortunes  of  Ireland  were  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  those  of  the  British  Empire,  and  that, 
with  the  downfall  of  that  Empire,  Ireland  also  would  be 
trampled  into  the  dust.  "Defend  the  Mother  Country,'* 
was  the  appeal;  "the  Germans  are  your  enemies  as  much  as 
they  are  our  enemies;  the  Irish  are  the  finest  fighters  in  the 
world,  and  now  is  the  time  to  show  your  valor."  A  common 
race,  a  common  cause,  a  common  community  of  interests  — 
all  of  these  were  urged  as  reasons  why  Ireland  should  forget 
her  age-long  grievances  and  throw  herself  heart  and  soul  into 
the  conflict. 

There  were  other  arguments  advanced.  It  was  stated  that 
Ireland,  as  a  matter  of  gratitude  for  the  passing  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill,  owed  to  England  every  man  that  could  shoulder  a 
musket.  The  superhuman  efforts  made  by  the  Liberals  to 
redress  the  grievances  of  Ireland,  which  have  been  detailed 
in  previous  chapters,  the  steadfast  manner  in  which  they  had 
fought  the  battle  for  the  Irish  against  the  forces  of  the 
Unionists  —  these  and  a  thousand  other  matters  were  brought 
into  the  limelight,  and  added  to  the  appeal  made  by  the 
Empire  to  the  little  impoverished  nation  of  four  and  a  half 
million  souls,  that  lay  across  the  Irish  Channel. 

And  then  there  were  other  reasons.    It  was  stated  that 


106   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  Germans,  if  they  should  conquer  England,  would  make 
slaves  of  the  Irish,  would  make  them  speak  German,  and 
would  absorb  them  into  her  terrible  military  machine,  which 
would  crush  out  all  the  fine  spirit  of  nationality  that  had 
been  so  distinguishing  a  feature  of  the  Irish  character  for 
centuries  past.  Unmentionable  atrocities  of  the  Germans  in 
their  advance  through  Belgium  were  pointed  to  also  —  the 
outrages  committed  upon  harmless  priests  and  nuns,  the 
shelling  of  Catholic  churches,  and  much  more  to  the  same 
effect.  There  were  so  many  sound  and  wholesome  argu- 
ments, said  the  British  apologists,  why  Ireland  should  kill  all 
the  Germans  in  sight,  that  no  reasonable  Irishman  had  any 
alternative  but  to  don  the  British  khaki  and  place  himself  at 
the  disposal  of  His  Majesty  the  King.  In  view  of  all  this, 
it  might  seem  surprising  that  the  Irish  failed  to  respond. 
What  were  their  reasons? 

That  Ireland  was  an  integral  portion  of  the  British  Empire, 
that  there  was  a  common  bond  of  sympathy  and  nationhood 
between  Ireland  and  England,  was  denied,  and  denied  in  a 
manner  that  left  no  room  for  doubt.  The  appeal  in  this 
regard  fell  on  deaf  ears.  The  Milesian  Gael  had  nothing  in 
common  with  the  Anglo-Saxon-Danish-Norman-Dutch  Eng- 
lishman. In  culture,  civilization,  religion,  language,  moral 
and  ethical  codes,  there  were  no  ties  between  Irish  and 
English.  The  only  ethnological  relationship  between  the  two 
peoples  was  the  fact  that  both  were  members  of  the  genus 
homo,  and  the  actions  of  the  British  in  Ireland  had  at  times 
made  it  appear  as  if  the  British  held  even  this  relationship 
in  some  considerable  doubt.  The  keenly  imaginative,  poeti- 
cal, vivacious  Irishman  had  nothing  in  common  with  the 
phlegmatic,  commercialized,  and  dull-witted  Englishman.  The 
appeal  to  racial  relationship,  therefore,  was  in  vain. 

That  the  Germans  were  common  enemies  of  Ireland  as  well 
as  of  the  British  Empire,  was  another  argument  that  needed 
little  to  explode  it.  Of  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  the 
English  were  the  only  nation  with  whom  the  Irish  had  been 
at  war.    The  French  had  always  been  friendly  to  Ireland; 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  107 


of  the  Russians  the  Irish  knew  only  that  they  had  bitterly 
and  brutally  oppressed  the  Poles  and  the  Jews;  of  the  Ger- 
mans they  knew  that  they  were  pioneers  in  literature,  science, 
art,  and  the  study  of  social  welfare;  of  the  British  they  knew 
that  they  had  oppressed  the  Irish  for  seven  hundred  years. 
There  were  more  bonds  of  sympathy  between  the  Irish  and 
the  Germans  than  between  the  Irish  and  the  British.  The 
Germans  had  done  much  to  encourage  the  revival  of  the 
Irish  language;  Professor  Kuno  Meyer,  a  German,  was  one 
of  the  most  learned  Gaelic  scholars  in  the  world.  Many 
Irish  parents  sent  their  children  to  German  educational 
establishments ;  few  of  them  were  sent  to  the  colleges  and 
universities  of  England.  The  British  had  been  the  hereditary 
enemies  of  the  Irish  race,  while  the  Germans  had  always  been 
sympathetic,  at  least  on  the  surface,  to  the  cause  of  Irish 
freedom. 

As  to  the  forgetting  of  Irish  grievances,  this  was  an  appeal 
that  was  becoming  tiresome  in  its  monotony.  Before  Ireland 
could  be  asked  to  forgive  and  forget,  some  evidence  of  Eng- 
land's regret  for  the  outrages  committed  and  of  her  desire 
to  make  restitution  should  certainly  be  forthcoming.  The 
fact  that  the  officers  responsible  for  the  Massacre  of  Bachelor's 
Walk  had  gone  unpunished  proved  that  England  refused  to 
acknowledge  herself  at  fault.  "The  leopard  cannot  change 
its  spots,"  said  the  Irish  people,  "and  England  is  still  the 
mother  of  murders  and  outrages  to-day,  as  she  was  in  the 
days  that  have  passed."  It  was  one  thing  to  forgive  the  in- 
juries of  the  past;  it  was  another  to  forgive  unrepented 
murders  which  still  reddened  the  stones  of  the  streets  of 
Dublin.  The  Irish  might  be  generous  almost  to  a  fault,  and 
unmindful  of  their  own  interests,  but  their  passions  were  warm 
and  not  to  be  subdued  by  the  weak  excuses  of  a  bully  in 
distress,  and  it  was  in  this  light  that  the  Irish  looked  upon 
Great  Britain. 

That  the  Liberals  had  stood  steadfast  to  their  determination 
to  pass  the  so-called  Home  Rule  Bill  might  be  admitted  with 
some  qualifications ;  that  the  Empire  had  thereby  earned  the 


108   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


gratitude  of  the  Irish  people  was  a  typical  specimen  of  the 
Englishman's  lack  of  humor.  Ireland  asked  for  justice,  not 
for  favors.  The  Home  Rule  Bill,  as  has  been  amply  demon- 
strated, was  a  half-hearted  measure  at  the  best,  designed 
mainly  as  a  payment  for  the  support  Mr.  Redmond  and 
his  colleagues  had  given  the  Liberals  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. By  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  could  it  be  termed 
a  just  or  final  settlement  of  Ireland's  demands  to  manage  her 
own  affairs.  That  Ireland  owed  a  debt  of  gratitude  to 
England  for  this  measure  was  never  even  seriously  con- 
sidered in  Ireland.  What  had  Britain  done  to  repay  the 
Irish  for  the  years  of  misery  that  had  followed  the  British 
occupation  centuries  before?  What  had  the  Empire  done  to 
repay  Ireland  for  thousands  of  murdered  sons  and  daughters, 
for  fertile  fields  devastated  and  homesteads  rendered  desolate? 
What  had  the  Empire  done  to  repay  Ireland  for  her  wrecked 
industries,  for  her  martyred  patriots,  for  her  population  cut 
in  half  in  fifty  years?  Surely  Ireland  owed  no  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  Britain  for  the  Home  Rule  Bill  that  had  been  reduced 
to  the  irreducible  minimum,  which  had  brought  the  country 
to  the  verge  of  civil  war,  and  had  been  bitterly  assailed  by 
one-half  of  the  British  people. 

The  English  said  that  Ireland  would  have  to  stand  or  fall 
with  the  British  Empire.  Irish  history  did  not  bear  out  this 
interested  contention  on  the  part  of  the  British.  Ireland  had 
been  able  before  to  hold  her  own  against  the  world,  and  there 
was  no  logical  reason  why  she  should  not  do  the  same  again. 
There  were  many  other  small  nationalities  in  Europe  that 
held  their  independence;  why  not  Ireland?  With  a  crushed 
and  fallen  foe  on  her  eastern  frontier  and  the  entire  stretch  of 
the  vast  Atlantic  washing  her  western  shores,  there  was  more 
reason  for  Ireland  being  independent  than  Holland,  Sweden, 
Denmark,  Switzerland,  and  others  of  the  small  nations  of 
Europe,  who  were  more  closely  surrounded  by  giant  powers 
and  mighty  armies  that  had  only  to  walk  over  the  frontier 
to  the  attack.  With  the  gaining  of  independence,  it  was  also 
pointed  out,  the  population  of  the  country  would  naturally 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  109 


increase  with  the  return  of  many  of  the  exiles.  And  the 
revival  of  industries  and  national  institutions  would  bring 
with  it  a  growing  sense  of  power,  and  lay  the  foundation  for 
the  establishment  of  national  forces  for  the  defense  of  the 
country.  All  these  things  had  been  pointed  out  to  the  Irish 
people  by  the  Sinn  Feiners,  and  there  was  no  dread,  but  only 
a  pious  hope,  that  England  might  be  placed  in  a  position  to 
prove  the  fallacy  of  her  own  arguments  when  she  said  that 
her  downfall  would  mean  the  end  of  Ireland's  hope  of  becom- 
ing a  self-governing  nation.  Her  hopes  of  becoming  so  under 
England  had  just  been  blasted. 

Even  should  the  worst  come  to  the  worst,  it  was  felt,  and 
not  without  reason,  that  the  Germans  could  scarcely  do  more 
to  crush  out  the  spirit  of  Irish  nationality  than  had  already 
been  tried  by  the  English.  The  Germans,  even  were  they 
the  devils  incarnate  the  English  pictured  them  to  be,  could 
hardly  do  more  than  Cromwell  had  done,  could  devastate  the 
country  in  no  more  thorough  and  painstaking  a  way  than 
the  British  had  done  in  their  philanthropic  and  civilizing 
administration  of  the  country.  It  was  felt  that  the  practical 
Germans  would  at  least  develop  the  industries  of  the  country, 
would  put  into  operation  again  the  idle  mills  and  mines,  and 
restore  at  least  some  prosperity  to  the  land.  It  was  also  felt 
that  the  Germans  and  the  Irish  could  work  hand  and  hand 
together  for  the  development  of  Ireland,  and  that  both  would 
be  the  gainers  thereby.  In  addition,  and  most  important  of 
all,  it  was  believed  that  the  Germans  were  as  friendly  disposed 
towards  the  Irish  as  the  Irish  were  towards  them,  and  that 
the  arrival  of  the  Germans  would  mean  the  dawn  of  inde- 
pendence for  the  nation. 

The  stories  of  German  atrocities  and  outrages  on  priests 
and  nuns  were  accepted  in  Ireland  with  frank  distrust.  The 
sudden  regard  of  the  English  for  priests  and  nuns  was  a 
novelty  to  the  Irish  people,  who  knew  how  lovingly  the  land 
of  Elizabeth  and  Cromwell  regarded  the  officials  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church.  The  pages  of  Irish  history  were  reddened  with 
the  blood  of  hosts  of  Irish  priests  and  nuns,  slain  and  outraged 


110   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


by  English  soldiers.  England's  habit  of  accusing  her  enemies 
of  every  vile  and  filthy  crime  was  also  but  too  well  known 
and  understood  in  Ireland  to  have  much  effect,  for  had  it  not 
been  an  immemorial  practice  of  England  to  defame  Ireland 
before  the  world?  In  fact,  it  is  possible  that  these  allegations 
did  as  much  as  anything  else  to  induce  the  Irish  to  sym- 
pathize with  Germany,  which  would,  they  knew,  be  now 
subjected  to  a  malicious  slander,  tempered  by  no  sense  of 
justice  or  shame.  As  the  English  were  using  the  self -same 
methods  against  the  Germans  that  they  had  used  on  previous 
occasions  to  besmirch  the  character  of  the  Irish  nation  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  tales  of  alleged  atrocities  thus  left  Ireland 
unmoved. 

Finally,  the  British  plea  that  England  was  going  to  war  in 
defense  of  the  integrity  of  small  nations  was  so  fraught  with 
hypocrisy  that  it  served  as  a  final  and  convincing  proof  that 
British  insincerity  had  not  outlived  its  best  traditions.  In- 
stead of  spending  so  much  time  and  energy  in  attempting  to 
argue  the  Irish  people  into  taking  sides  with  the  Empire,  the 
English  would  possibly  have  achieved  better  results  had  they 
proved  their  sincerity  by  granting  a  moiety  of  justice  to  the 
small  nation  beside  them.  Had  they  been  sincere,  they 
would  have  put  the  Home  Rule  Act  into  operation  immedi- 
ately, and  have  cut  out  all  talk  of  the  partition  of  the  country. 
They  would  have  done  everything  that  lay  in  their  power  to 
show  to  the  Irish  people  that  they  were  anxious  and  willing 
to  make  amends  for  the  past;  that  they  were  willing,  as  well 
as  able,  to  put  the  Irishman  on  an  equality  with  the  English- 
man, the  Scotsman,  and  the  Welshman,  and  to  trust  to  the 
generosity  of  the  people  to  assist  them.  Instead  of  doing 
these  things,  they  held  up  the  Home  Rule  Act;  allowed  (as 
will  be  shown)  Englishmen  to  stay  at  home,  while  they  sent 
the  Irish  regiments  to  the  front  and  appealed  for  recruits; 
asked  the  Irish  to  pay  in  advance  for  something  they  might 
or  might  not  get  when  the  war  was  over  and  after  the  man- 
hood of  Ireland  had  been  sacrificed  in  a  quarrel  in  which  the 
Irish  had  no  part.    In  short,  England  acted  in  a  manner  that 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  111 


served  but  to  create  mistrust,  suspicion,  and  even  hatred  in 
the  breasts  of  the  Irish  people. 

For  these  and  many  other  reasons  the  men  of  Ireland  did 
not  espouse  England's  cause,  and  did  not  feel  any  inclination 
to  join  hands  with  the  King's  Own  Scottish  Murderers  (as 
they  were  called  in  Dublin)  and  their  comrades-in-arms.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  war  persistent  attempts  were  made  to 
represent  the  Irish  people  as  practically  unanimous  in  its 
sympathy  with  England's  cause.  Ridiculous  statements  were 
made  even  by  Irish  Parliamentary  leaders  as  to  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Irishmen  who  flocked  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Empire.  These  statements  have  been  since  proved  to  be 
absolutely  untrue  by  the  publication  of  the  official  figures  for 
recruiting  in  Ireland.  Irishmen  refused  to  flock  to  England's 
banner,  notwithstanding  the  blandishments  of  John  Redmond 
and  his  colleagues,  who  urged  them  to  make  good  "the 
wastage  in  Flanders !" 


CHAPTER  XVII 


The  Recruiting  Sergeant 

IT  is  not  uncharitable  to  suppose  that  the  outbreak  of 
the  European  War  was  looked  on  by  at  least  some  of 
the  politicians  in  Great  Britain  as  a  God-sent  deliverance 
from  their  troubles.  So  far  as  the  protagonists  in  the  Irish 
situation  were  concerned,  it  could  scarcely  have  happened  at 
a  more  opportune  moment.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were 
not  a  few  who  insisted  that  one  of  the  reasons  that  prompted 
Germany  to  her  declaration  of  war  on  Russia  was  the  tangled 
political  situation  in  England  and  the  near  prospect  of  civil 
war  in  Ireland.  While  there  may,  on  the  surface,  be  a  great 
deal  to  support  this  view,  it  seems  rather  remarkable  that  the 
German  diplomatists  —  if,  indeed,  they  wanted  war  at  all  — 
did  not  stave  off  the  conflict  until  the  opening  of  hostilities  in 
Ireland.  If  the  supposition  be  correct,  it  shows  a  remarkable 
shortsightedness  on  the  part  of  men  who  have  since  been 
lauded  —  and  condemned  —  for  the  manner  in  which  they 
read  the  secrets  of  the  future  and  made  their  preparations 
accordingly. 

That  Ireland  was  on  the  verge  of  one  of  the  vital  crises  in 
her  history  seems  fairly  certain.  That  the  war  brought  an 
apparent  truce  in  that  crisis  is  also  to  be  admitted.  As  the 
following  chapters  will  show,  however,  the  truce  was  more 
on  the  surface  than  actual,  and  was  entered  into  rather  by 
the  professional  politician  than  by  the  people  of  Ireland. 

The  situation  created  in  Ireland  owing  to  the  landing  of 
the  arms  for  the  Volunteers  and  the  shootings  at  Bachelor's 
Walk  impressed  these  same  politicians,  however,  with  a 
feeling  that  something  must  be  done  to  secure  for  the  British 
Empire  the  "loyalty"  of  the  Irish  people.  The  question  of 
the  Royal  Assent  to  the  Government  of  Ireland  Bill,  therefore, 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  113 


became  a  matter  of  even  more  than  usual  importance.  Mr. 
Redmond  assured  the  Cabinet  leaders  that,  if  the  Bill  were 
once  signed  by  King  George,  all  would  be  well,  and  the  men 
of  Ireland  would  enthusiastically  rush  to  the  colors  from 
every  province.  Even  at  this  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Empire,  the  Tories  continued  to  state  that  they  had  no 
compromise  to  make,  that  they  would  never  submit  to  the 
dictation  of  a  Parliament  in  Dublin,  and  that  they  would 
prefer  to  join  hands  with  the  Kaiser  —  at  that  time  the  open 
and  avowed  enemy  of  Britain  —  rather  than  agree  to  the 
enactment  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill. 

What  was  to  be  done?  To  those  who  know  the  character 
of  the  British,  as  revealed  in  their  own  record,  the  answer  is 
obvious.  When  in  a  difficulty,  the  one  alternative  that 
presents  itself  to  the  British  mind  is  "coerce  or  compromise." 
That  the  British  should  seek  to  coerce  the  Orangemen  would 
be  unthinkable.  The  Orangemen  had  defied  the  British,  they 
had  arms  in  their  hands,  and  besides  they  had  behind  them 
the  most  powerful  moneyed  interests  in  Britain,  without  which 
the  war  could  not  be  financed,  and  without  which  even  King 
George  might  find  it  difficult  to  secure  his  monthly  pay 
envelope.  As  coercion  was  impossible,  therefore,  the  only 
thing  to  do  was  to  compromise,  or,  in  other  words,  to  delude 
the  Irish  people  by  another  set  of  empty  promises,  and  trust 
to  luck  for  the  reckoning  when  the  time  for  fulfillment  came. 

Meanwhile  John  Redmond  and  Sir  Edward  Carson,  the 
supposed  deadly  enemies,  met  on  the  Terrace  at  Westminster 
and  decided  that  for  the  time  the  enactment  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  was  out  of  the  question.  That  this  was  a  disap- 
pointment to  Mr.  Redmond  is  quite  possible,  owing  to  the 
ambition  he  was  said  to  entertain  of  seeing  himself  installed 
as  the  Premier  of  Ireland.  A  touching  scene  was  staged  in 
the  House  of  Commons  at  Westminster  a  few  days  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  when  both  Sir  Edward  Carson  and  Mr. 
Redmond  informed  the  assembly  and  the  world  that  Ireland 
was  not  going  to  desert  the  Empire  in  its  hour  of  need. 
Each  gentleman  felicitated  the  other  upon  his  patriotism,  and 


114   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


each  assured  the  other  and  the  world  that  Ireland,  north  and 
south,  was  united  against  "the  Huns."  There  were  cheers 
from  all  sides  of  the  house,  and  the  Mother  of  Parliaments 
allowed  herself  to  relax  into  a  genteel  smile.  In  the  case  of 
the  majority  of  the  members,  this  smile  must  have  been  at 
the  supposed  simplicity  of  the  poor  Irish. 

To  appreciate  the  irony  of  the  situation  from  the  stand- 
point of  thinking  Irishmen,  it  must  be  remembered  the  Irish 
people  had  voluntarily  taxed  themselves  for  over  thirty  years 
to  keep  the  Irish  Party  in  London  to  promote  the  interests  of 
Ireland,  not  those  of  the  Empire.  To  defeat  Irish  interests, 
Carson  had  just  raised  an  army,  and  by  threatening  rebellion 
had  dashed  to  the  ground  the  hopes  of  a  generation.  Carson 
represented  the  disturbing  element  —  the  element  which 
professed  love  for  the  Empire;  Redmond  represented  the 
injured  party,  which  had  never  had  the  remotest  reason  for 
being  concerned  as  to  the  Empire's  fate.  The  crudest  com- 
mon sense  dictated  that  Redmond  should  let  Carson  and  the 
British  Government  find  a  solution  for  the  quandary  in  which 
the  violence  of  the  one  and  the  weakness  of  the  other  had 
placed  them.  Had  Redmond  even  chosen  to  remain  inactive, 
he  might  have  been  forgiven.  But,  claiming  still  to  represent 
the  Irish  nation  —  a  nation  which,  with  many  faults,  scarcely 
deserved  to  be  represented  by  a  simpering  sentimentalist  at  a 
most  critical  moment  of  its  history  —  he  rushes  into  the 
arms  of  those  who  have  openly  insulted  and  rebuffed  him, 
makes  peace  when  only  he  had  anything  to  pardon,  and 
declared  by  his  action  that  to  the  Irish  people  their  century- 
long  oppression  and  even  the  life-blood  of  their  kindred  still 
dyeing  the  streets  of  Dublin  was  nothing  compared  with  the 
Empire. 

Then  Mr.  Redmond  made  a  noteworthy  statement.  He 
said:  "The  coast  of  Ireland  will  be  defended  from  foreign 
invasion  by  her  armed  sons,  and  for  this  purpose  armed 
Nationalist  Catholics  in  the  South  will  be  only  too  glad  to 
join  arms  with  the  armed  Protestant  Ulstermen  of  the 
North."    Mr.  Redmond  added  a  suggestion  that  every  British 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OE  1916  115 


soldier  in  Ireland  might  safely  be  sent  to  the  front  in  Bel- 
gium or  elsewhere,  as  Ireland  would  hold  its  boundaries  against 
the  Germans.  Then  the  polite  Parliament  smiled  again,  and 
decided  not  to  do  anything  of  the  kind.  The  British*  had  a 
much  better  occupation  in  mind  for  the  Irish  soldiers  than 
guarding  their  own  frontiers. 

Premier  Asquith  and  Mr.  Redmond  held  a  number  of 
informal  talks  over  the  matter.  One  thing  Redmond  insisted 
on,  as  being  necessary  to  save  his  own  face  —  the  signing  of 
his  Home  Rule  Bill.  He  said  that  the  Irish  people  could  not 
be  trifled  with  any  longer;  at  least,  something  new  must  be 
devised,  if  trouble  were  to  be  averted.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Premier  declared  that  the  one  thing  essential  was,  that 
the  men  of  Ireland  should  add  their  strength  to  the  British 
army.  A  compromise  on  these  two  points  was  arrived  at, 
and  the  worst  betrayal  in  Irish  history  consummated. 

In  accordance  with  this  arrangement  Mr.  Asquith,  on  Sep- 
tember 15,  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons  a  Suspen- 
sory Bill  whereby  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  suspended  from 
operation  until  one  year  from  the  passing  of  the  Act,  or 
"until  such  later  date  (not  being  later  than  the  end  of  the 
present  war)  as  may  be  fixed  by  His  Majesty  by  Order  in 
Council.,,  In  connection  with  these  proposals,  Mr.  Asquith 
gave  two  "solemn  pledges":  first,  that  "the  Home  Rule  Bill 
will  not  and  cannot  come  into  operation  until  Parliament  has 
had  the  fullest  opportunity  by  means  of  an  Amending  Bill  of 
altering,  modifying,  or  qualifying  its  provisions  in  such  a  way 
as  to  secure  at  any  rate  the  general  consent  both  of  Ireland 
and  the  United  Kingdom and  secondly,  that  "the  employ- 
ment of  force  of  any  kind  for  what  you  call  the  coercion  of 
Ulster  is  an  absolutely  unthinkable  thing."  The  Suspensory 
Bill  and  the  Home  Rule  Bill  received  the  signature  of  George  V, 
and  another  stage  in  the  farce  was  completed. 

The  effect  of  the  first  proviso  was  easy  to  understand,  and 
all  the  eloquence  of  the  Irish  Party  was  unavailing  to  hide 
its  true  nature.  It  meant  that,  while  the  Home  Rule  Act 
was  now  on  the  statute  book,  no  Irish  Parliament  was  to  be 


116   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


established,  and  the  Irish  people  were  to  remain  under  exactly 
the  same  conditions  as  before,  until  such  time  as  the  war  was 
over;  then  the  Act  would  be  once  more  placed  at  the  mercy 
of  whatever  majority  ruled  in  the  British  House  of  Commons, 
and  it  was  extremely  problematical  whether  the  Liberals 
would  have  a  majority  or  not.  In  the  very  probable  event  of 
the  Unionists  being  returned  to  power,  there  was  no  possible 
doubt  but  that  the  Tories  would  so  "amend"  the  Act  as  to 
make  it  worse  than  useless.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  Irish  people  were  intensely  dissatisfied  with  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  even  as  it  stood,  and  the  prospect  of  a  further 
series  of  mutilations  destroyed  all  interest  whatever  in  the 
measure. 

Nor  did  the  Unionists  make  any  secret  of  their  intentions 
with  regard  to  the  Act.  Sir  Edward  Carson  denounced  the 
action  of  Premier  Asquith  as  "unparalleled  treachery,"  while 
other  Tory  leaders  took  open  comfort  in  the  reflection  that, 
when  the  time  came  for  the  Amending  Bill,  they  would  be  in 
power  and  would  see  that  the  Home  Rule  Act  was  amended 
out  of  existence.  Nevertheless,  the  order  went  forth  from 
the  Irish  Party  for  demonstrations  of  joy  in  Ireland  at  the 
"victory."  The  Irish  people  had  some  good  sense  left,  and 
reserved  their  energy  for  a  more  practical  declaration  of  their 
sentiments. 

With  the  royal  signature,  however,  the  time  had  come  for 
Mr.  Redmond  to  pay  the  price  of  "victory."  He  had  made 
a  definite  contract  with  the  British  Government,  and  he  now 
hastened  to  fulfill  it.  The  ink  was  scarcely  dry  on  the  royal 
signature  when  Mr.  Redmond,  supported  by  his  party, 
assumed  the  duties  of  a  recruiting  sergeant,  and  announced 
that  England  expected  every  Irishman  to  do  his  duty.  A 
meeting  was  held  by  the  members  of  the  Party  and  Premier 
Asquith  in  the  Mansion  House,  Dublin,  behind  closed  doors 
and  guarded  by  the  police  and  the  military.  At  this  meeting 
Mr.  Redmond  called  on  the  men  of  Ireland  to  join  the  army 
and  blaze  a  trail  to  victory  for  the  British  Empire.  This  was 
within  a  month  of  the  day  when  the  King's  Own  Scottish 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  117 


Borderers  had  sent  their  leaden  messengers  of  death  into  the 
bodies  of  Irish  men,  women,  and  children  on  Bachelor's 
Walk. 

Is  there  any  room  for  wonder  that  the  men  of  Ireland  did 
not  respond  to  the  call  to  arms?  They  were  told  by  Mr. 
Redmond  that  the  Home  Rule  Act  was  now  an  accomplished 
fact;  that  they  had  won  all  for  which  they  had  hoped  and 
striven  for  centuries.  It  was  now  their  duty  to  go  into  the 
trenches  and  offer  themselves  as  food  for  German  guns. 
They  owed  this  to  the  benevolent  Empire  that  had  at  last 
restored  their  freedom.  They  were  not  told  that  this  price 
was  demanded  in  advance;  that  the  freedom  of  Ireland  was 
far  from  guaranteed  under  the  Home  Rule  Act.  The  im- 
partial historian  of  the  future  will  undoubtedly  classify  as 
unrivaled  effrontery  the  assumption  of  the  British  ministers 
and  a  venal  Irish  Party  that  the  Irish  people  could  not 
distinguish  between  fact  and  fallacy.  It  came  as  a  shock  to 
both  ministers  and  Party  to  discover  that  there  were  Irishmen 
who  demanded  why  the  Home  Rule  Act  had  not  been  put 
into  immediate  operation,  and  declared  it  was  time  enough  to 
talk  of  blood-toll  when  England  had  given  practical  evidence 
of  her  sincerity  in  dealing  with  Ireland.  Mr.  Redmond 
characterized  such  talk  as  the  "basest  ingratitude,' '  and,  when 
a  reference  was  made  to  the  Massacre  of  Bachelor's  Walk, 
retorted  that  ''this  was  not  the  time  for  the  discussion  of 
academic  questions." 

Mr.  Redmond  went  ahead  with  his  programme  with  a 
pertinacity  and  resourcefulness  that  would  have  won  him 
distinction  in  a  nobler  cause.  By  means  of  speeches  made  in 
the  House  of  Commons  and  throughout  England,  of  "state- 
ments" issued  to  the  press,  and  of  a  widespread  campaign  in 
the  newspapers  of  Ireland,  England,  and  the  United  States,  he 
made  it  appear  that  the  men  of  Ireland  were  filled  with 
eagerness  to  fight  for  the  Empire.  In  the  Commons  the 
Tories  laughed  at  the  figures  he  produced,  and  demanded 
that  he  prove  his  assertions.  Again  and  again  he  stated  that 
from  200,000  to  250,000  Irishmen  had  joined  the  British  army 


118   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


since  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  never  produced  any- 
reliable  proof  of  his  statement. 

The  fact  remained,  however,  that  the  one  big  object  of  the 
recruiting  campaign  failed.  Had  Redmond  succeeded  in 
inducing  the  Irish  Volunteers  to  join  the  army,  the  British 
would  have  killed  two  birds  with  the  one  stone.  They  would 
have  added  some  excellent  fighting  material  to  their  army, 
and  they  would  have  removed  from  Ireland  the  one  menace 
that  confronted  them  there  —  the  armed  and  drilled  Volun- 
teers, who  were  never  under  the  domination  of  Mr.  Redmond 
and  his  Party.  Ireland  was  well  aware  of  the  trick  con- 
templated. It  was  quite  obvious  that,  as  soon  as  the  Volun- 
teers were  safely  out  of  the  way,  the  British  could  do  whatever 
they  pleased  with  impunity.  The  plan  was  too  obvious  to 
succeed.  The  men  of  Ireland  refused  to  enlist,  and,  out  of 
440,000  men  of  military  age  in  the  country,  less  than  20,000 
answered  the  call  of  "King  and  Empire,'*  eloquently  pleaded 
by  Mr.  Redmond. 

The  British  Government  was  not  satisfied  with  Mr.  Red- 
mond's success.  To  lead  the  people  of  America  into  thinking 
that  Ireland  was  "loyal"  was  not  enough;  it  was  essential 
that  the  men  of  Ireland  should  be  induced  to  don  the  British 
uniform.  There  was  opposition  of  the  strongest  possible 
character  to  this  course  from  a  hundred  centers  in  Ireland, 
and  this  had  to  be  overcome.  The  British  Government 
thereupon  decided  that  it  was  time  to  initiate  another  of 
those  periodic  reigns  of  terror  that  had  come  to  be  looked 
upon  as  an  essential  part  of  the  English  government  of  the 
Irish  people.  Coercion  was  to  be  used  in  Ireland,  as  it  was 
later  used  in  Greece  —  in  both  cases  in  absolute  defiance  of 
the  first  rights  of  every  nation  to  put  self-preservation  above 
the  interests  or  even  the  rights  of  a  foreign  power. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


Fuel  to  the  Flames 

ONE  of  the  first  acts  of  the  British  Government  follow- 
ing the  declaration  of  war  on  Germany  was  the 
suppression  of  two  of  the  papers  published  in  Dublin 
that  had  always  openly  voiced  their  opinions  regarding  the 
English  policy  in  Ireland.  The  first  to  come  under  the  ban 
was  Sinn  Fein,  edited  by  Arthur  Griffith,  and  this  was 
followed  immediately  by  the  suppression  of  Irish  Freedom, 
edited  by  Thomas  Clarke  and  Sean  MacDermott.  These 
papers  had  attacked  the  lies  that  were  being  circulated  by 
the  Recruiters  in  Ireland,  and  had  been  outspoken  in  their 
statements  regarding  the  position  that  Ireland  occupied  in 
regard  to  the  war. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  suppression  of  these  papers  was 
most  natural;  that  the  same  would  have  been  done  in  Ger- 
many or  in  France  under  identical  circumstances.  This  is 
no  justification  for  depriving  a  nation  of  the  advice  and  guid- 
ance of  her  most  gifted  and  sincerest  sons  at  a  moment  when 
her  life  and  her  whole  future  depended  on  her  decision. 
When  Nietzsche  openly  defends  the  right  of  the  strong  to 
trample  on  the  weak  we  may  respect  his  honesty,  if  not  his 
judgment.  But  when  professed  champions  of  liberty  in  Eng- 
land or  elsewhere  deny  to  any  nation  or  people  the  right  to 
put  self-preservation  first,  their  honesty  (rather  than  their 
judgment)  falls  under  suspicion.  If  England  really  fought  the 
battle  of  civilization,  neutrals  who  had  profited  most  by  this 
"civilization"  should  have  taken  their  place  in  the  battle 
van,  before  venturing  to  criticise  Ireland  for  "disloyalty"  to  a 
system  which  has  been  her  curse. 

The  last  copy  of  Sinn  Fein  was  published  on  November  14, 
1914.    Hints  had  already  been  given  the  editor  that  the  end 


no   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


of  his  paper  was  in  sight,  and  an  editorial  article  contained  in 
the  last  issue  puts  the  matter  in  a  nutshell.  It  was  then 
believed  that  the  editor  was  to  be  prosecuted,  and  he  defied 
the  Government  to  do  this.  They  retorted  by  suppressing 
the  paper,  seizing  and  smashing  the  plant,  and  destroying  the 
offices.  As  an  indication  of  the  situation  in  Ireland  at  this 
time  (a  few  weeks  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war),  and  on 
account  of  its  historic  value,  I  quote  the  editorial  from  this 
last  issue: 

The  London  "Times"  announces  that  the  British  Government 
inclines  to  prosecute  the  national  press.  So  be  it.  If  it  prosecutes 
us  without  packing  the  jury,  we  win;  if  it  prosecutes  us  and  packs 
the  jury,  we  win.  No  unpacked  Irish  jury  will  brand  felon  on  the 
brow  of  those  who  have  stood  between  the  youth  of  Ireland  and  the 
plot  to  immolate  them  in  England's  interest,  and  as  to  the  verdict 
of  a  packed  jury,  all  Ireland  —  Unionist  Ireland  and  Nationalist 
Ireland  alike  —  will  know  in  the  day  of  trial  that  the  criminals  are 
not  in  the  dock,  but  in  the  jury  box.  The  verdict  they  render  will 
be  a  verdict  in  every  honest  man's  mind  against  British  government 
in  Ireland.  For  weeks  past  this  government  has  surreptitiously 
sought  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  "Sinn  Fein,"  and  it  has  failed. 
In  England  its  police  has  seized  this  journal  and  intimidated  the  news- 
agents. In  Wexford  it  has  imprisoned  a  man  for  circulating  a  reprint 
of  an  article  that  appeared  in  our  columns.  Through  the  heads  of 
the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  (Board  of  Erin),  whom  it  bribes 
with  patronage  —  even  the  patronage  of  promotion  in  the  R.  I.  C, 
and  the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Police  and  Detective  Departments  — 
it  has  essayed  to  obstruct  the  circulation  of  "Sinn  Fein"  in  the 
provinces,  and  in  its  Post  Office  it  has  destroyed,  delayed  and  with- 
held copies  of  "Sinn  Fein"  by  the  hundred.  This  is  the  Govern- 
ment —  this  is  the  organized  hypocrisy  that  declaims  to  the  world 
on  the  Freedom  of  the  Press  and  Fair  Dealing. 

Be  it  known  that  the  crime  of  the  national  Press  against  England 
is  its  exhortation  to  the  manhood  of  this  country  —  of  which  England 
has  in  half  a  century  extirpated  one  moiety  —  not  to  permit  itself, 
through  ignorance,  through  deceit,  or  through  intimidation  to  be 
emigrated  to  preserve  the  extirpators.  That  crime  we  have  com- 
mitted, and  that  crime  we  shall  continue  to  commit  so  long  as 
England  asserts  her  usurped  right  to  govern  this  country.  And 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  121 


whatever  may  happen  to  the  Press  England  fears  in  this  country 
and  to  its  conductors,  this  we  know  —  that  the  body  and  soul  of 
Ireland  has  been  saved.  .  .  . 

We  have  a  postscript.  Last  week  a  man,  after  a  public  trial  by 
court  martial  in  London,  was,  without  public  sentence,  secretly 
executed,  and  the  newspapers  forbidden  by  the  Press  Bureau  to 
refer  to  the  fact.  On  Wednesday  they  were  permitted  to  mention  it, 
because  the  British  Parliament  was  opening,  and  it  was  feared  certain 
members  would  arraign  the  policy  of  secret  execution.  The  man 
was  convicted  as  a  spy,  and  his  execution  under  the  law  was  justi- 
fied. It  is  not  the  execution,  but  the  manner  of  the  execution  that 
forms  a  menace  to  every  man.  In  a  country  where  a  man  can  be 
secretly  sentenced  to  death,  secretly  shot,  and  the  Press  muzzled, 
there  is  no  longer  security  for  the  innocent.  Let  it  be  known,  there- 
fore, that  if  any  Nationalist  journalist  in  the  hands  of  England 
happens  to  disappear,  he  will  not  have  disappeared  either  through 
heart  trouble  or  any  disease  whatsoever  except  the  disease  that  has 
afflicted  Ireland  since  1801. 

Eighteen  months  later  the  cold-blooded  murder  of  Francis 
Sheehy-Skeffington  in  Dublin  was  a  sinister  confirmation  of 
this  warning,  and  Skeffington  was  not  the  only  one. 

With  the  disappearance  of  Irish  Freedom,  the  organ  of  the 
Clann-na-Gael,  Sinn  Fein,  The  Cork  Celt,  and  others  that 
were  opposed  to  the  recruiting  policy,  the  British  Government 
believed  it  had  solved  at  least  one  aspect  of  the  problem. 
But  they  found  they  had  later  to  suppress  the  Irish  Worker 
(edited  by  James  Connolly),  the  organ  of  the  workingmen  of 
Ireland,  wmich  also  came  out  against  the  campaign  to  send 
the  men  of  Ireland  to  fight  in  France. 

The  work  of  the  censor,  however,  had  but  begun.  Arthur 
Griffith  immediately  brought  out  another  paper,  this  time  on 
a  rather  ingenious  plan.  There  was  no  editorial  comment 
in  the  new  publication,  Scissors  and  Paste,  which  consisted 
entirely  of  extracts  reprinted  from  English  newspapers. 
These  extracts  were  chosen  with  great  care,  and  were  reprinted 
just  as  they  stood,  the  readers  of  the  paper  being  left  to  draw 
their  own  conclusions.  Even  this  repetition  of  what  their 
own  papers  had  printed  angered  the  English,  and  after  a 


122   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


short  run,  in  which  it  gained  daily  in  popularity,  Scissors 

and  Paste  was  also  confiscated. 

But  one  paper  followed  another.  The  Irish  Worker  was 
followed  by  the  Workers*  Republic,  Freedom  by  Ireland, 
and  these  again  by  The  Spark,  Honesty,  The  Gael,  and  a 
score  of  others,  all  bearing  the  same  message  and  all  sup- 
pressed after  the  first  few  issues.  The  Gaelic  Athlete,  a 
paper  devoted  to  Irish  sports,  was  also  suppressed  for  advising 
young  Irishmen  not  to  join  the  British  army.  Ireland's 
tongue  was  to  be  torn  out  before  she  was  dragged  into  the 
arena  to  fight,  —  not  indeed  for  the  amusement,  but  for 
the  selfish  interests  of  a  tyrant. 

The  suppression  of  the  Irish  papers,  however,  was  not  the 
only  method  employed  by  the  British  Government  to  silence 
the  Irish  people.  To  give  the  authorities  greater  freedom  to 
deal  with  the  situation,  a  special  "Defense  of  the  Realm  Act" 
was  passed,  under  which  the  Government  possessed  practically 
unlimited  authority  over  the  Irish  people.  With  the  passage 
of  this  Act  another  reign  of  persecution  and  coercion  set  in. 
An  epidemic  of  arrests  broke  out  all  over  the  country.  Men 
and  boys  were  arrested  on  the  most  trivial  of  charges,  and 
allowed  to  remain  days  and  weeks  in  jail  without  knowing 
with  what  they  were  charged.  Men  who  were  known  not  to 
sympathize  with  the  Government  were  batoned  by  the  police 
in  broad  daylight,  insulted  by  the  military,  and  often  found 
unconscious  and  bleeding  in  a  dark  alley  or  lane  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  morning. 

Worse  than  this,  the  military,  never  a  respecter  of  either 
age  or  sex  in  Ireland,  adopted  an  attitude  towards  Irish  girls 
and  women  that  added  possibly  more  than  anything  else  to 
the  rising  tide  of  revolt.  While  the  recruiting  sergeants  of 
the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  were  filling  the  pages  of  the 
newspapers  they  controlled  with  the  most  blood-curdling 
stories  of  German  atrocities  on  nuns  and  priests,  the  English 
soldiers  in  Ireland  were  providing  instances  in  plenty  of  the 
peculiar  refinement  of  English  culture  as  contrasted  with  that 
of  the  "Huns"  of  Central  Europe.    Women  were  found 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  123 


"drowned"  in  the  Liffey,  and  there  was  neither  publicity 
given  to  the  fact  nor  inquiry  following  it.  Women  were 
grossly  insulted  on  the  streets  of  the  cities  by  the  armed 
garrison  of  England.  Girls  were  found  dead  and  mutilated  at 
the  very  gates  of  Portobello  Barracks,  but  there  was  no 
inquiry.  Girls  were  found  dead  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
constabulary  barracks  in  the  Phoenix  Park,  but  the  matter 
was  hushed  up.  In  one  instance,  a  dead  girl,  found  along 
the  bank  of  the  Royal  Canal  at  Phibsboro,  was  clutching  a 
khaki  belt  in  her  dead  hand,  but  Mr.  Redmond  demanded  no 
inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of  her  death.  The  Redmondite 
Press  were  silent  as  to  these  facts,  because  they  feared  that 
it  might  stop  recruiting!  In  the  last  week  of  August,  1915, 
two  little  nursemaids,  aged  15  and  16  years  respectively,  in 
charge  of  soldiers'  families  in  Dublin,  brought  charges  against 
their  masters  of  indecent  assault  and  rape.  There  was  medical 
evidence  in  support  of  the  girls'  stories,  but  the  charges  were 
dismissed.  The  testimony  of  the  soldier  in  each  case  out- 
weighed that  of  the  girl.  The  girls  were  not  Belgians,  but 
mere  Irish,  and  therefore  fit  victims  for  the  apostles  of  British 
civilization.  In  spite  of  every  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  these  cases,  and  hundreds  of  a  similar  character, 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  people,  with  a  result  that  can  be 
imagined. 

Many  volumes  would  be  required  to  enumerate  all  the 
instances  of  savage  persecution  under  the  Defense  of  the 
Realm  Act.  Men  were  thrown  into  jail  for  speaking  in 
Irish,  it  being  the  contention  of  the  authorities  that  they 
might  be  saying  seditious  things  in  a  language  not  understood 
by  the  police;  men  were  sentenced  to  terms  of  imprisonment 
for  conversations  overheard  in  the  street,  in  which  remarks 
were  passed  that  seemed  to  be  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
recruiting  campaign.  The  common  charge  throughout  the 
country  was  that  of  "using  words  likely  to  prejudice  recruit- 
ing," and  it  was  only  necessary  to  bring  a  charge  to  secure  a 
conviction.  Naturally,  this  method  led  to  an  aggravation  of 
the  trouble.    Recruiting  posters  were  torn  down  in  every 


124   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


village  and  town  in  Ireland;  the  soldiers  were  hissed  in  the 
streets;  men  got  up  at  the  street  corners  and  made  speeches 
denouncing  the  Government  and  the  Defense  of  the  Realm 
Act  in  scathing  language.  The  prosecutions  became  more 
vigorous;  one  speaker  after  another  was  arrested  and  thrown 
into  jail;  but,  where  one  was  taken  away,  twenty  more 
appeared,  until  the  Government  found  itself  brought  to  a 
halt  and  uncertain  what  to  do.  The  one  thing  certain  was, 
that  the  actions  of  the  military  and  their  treatment  of  the 
civilian  population,  especially  of  the  women,  and  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Defense  of  the  Realm  Act  had  brought  recruiting 
to  an  absolute  standstill,  and  had  roused  the  temper  of  the 
people  to  a  dangerous  pitch. 

That  this  policy  of  the  Government  did  more  to  assist  than 
to  hamper  the  propaganda  of  those  who  were  already  em- 
bittered against  England  is  incontrovertible.  It  is  also 
certain  that  the  Government  became  alarmed  at  the  situation 
it  had  itself  created.  After  the  lessons  of  centuries  it  seems 
unbelievable  that  the  representatives  of  the  British  had  not 
learned  that  coercion  was  the  worst  possible  policy  to  intro- 
duce in  Ireland.  Past  history  had  shown  that  coercion  only 
stiffened  the  backs  of  the  Irish  people,  and  made  them  more 
bitter  against  England  and  more  determined  to  overthrow  her 
tyrannical  government.  Day  by  day  the  strength  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers  increased,  and  that  of  the  small  fraction  which 
still  followed  the  leadership  of  John  Redmond  decreased. 
Recruiting  in  Ireland  for  the  British  forces,  never  successful, 
now  entirely  ceased.  The  anti-recruiting  movement  had 
become  nation  wide.  The  arrests  of  the  men  who  were  leading 
it  spurred  others  to  take  up  the  work.  The  suppressed 
papers  reappeared  again,  changed  only  in  name.  The 
women  joined  hands  with  the  men  in  their  fight  against  the 
Mm  pi  re,  and  the  drilling  and  arming  of  the  Volunteers  went  on 
apace.  To  the  eyes  of  all  who  wished  to  see,  the  situation 
was  charged  with  the  electricity  that  forboded  a  storm,  but 
there  were  those  who  would  not  see.  The  evidence  given  at 
the  inquiry  held  after  the  Rebellion  to  inquire  into  its  causes 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  125 


revealed  the  fact  that  the  authorities  learned  too  late  of  the 
results  of  the  actions  of  the  Government.  When  they  tried 
to  grapple  with  the  position,  they  found  it  had  already  gone 
beyond  their  reach. 

Meanwhile  John  Redmond,  T.  P.  O'Connor,  John  Dillon, 
and  Joseph  Devlin,  the  leaders  of  the  "Irish"  Party  in 
Parliament,  continued  to  tell  the  American  people  through 
the  American  newspapers  of  the  quiet,  "loyal,"  and  contented 
condition  of  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  of  the  thousands  of 
Irish  recruits  who  were  daily  pouring  out  of  the  country  to 
fill  the  gaps  made  in  the  ranks  of  Irish  regiments  in  conse- 
quence of  the  ghastly  blunder  at  the  Dardanelles. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


The  Coalition  Cabinet 

WHILE  matters  were  thus  assuming  a  sinister  phase 
in  Ireland,  the  British  Government  had  many 
things  to  disturb  its  peace  of  mind  at  home.  In 
the  first  place,  the  war  had  not  gone  very  favorably.  The 
Teutons  had  proven  to  be  much  more  difficult  to  dispose  of 
than  had  been  expected.  Englishmen  who  had  hoped  that 
the  enemy  would  be  crushed  within  a  year  woke  up  to  a  pain- 
ful realization  of  the  unwillingness  of  the  Central  Powers  to 
be  wiped  out.  Zeppelin  raids  and  naval  disasters,  with  the 
defeats  of  the  Allied  armies  on  every  front,  had  put  a  painful 
complexion  on  the  whole  situation.  Things  became  so  bad 
that  even  English  football  matches  were  interfered  with,  and 
there  were  ugly  rumors  of  conscription  and  prohibition  of 
the  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages.  This  last-mentioned  threat, 
possibly  more  than  any  other  factor,  brought  home  to  the 
English  man-in-the-street  the  fact  that  the  nation  was  really 
at  war,  and  that  the  outlook  was  serious. 

Another  disturbing  element  was  the  protest  in  the  French 
newspapers  that  Englishmen  were  shirking  their  duty.  In 
spite  of  his  proverbial  politeness,  the  Frenchman  is  nothing 
if  not  candid.  Usually  he  will  express  a  home  truth  in 
language  that  makes  even  an  insult  seem  complimentary,  but 
there  are  times  when  he  can  be  outspoken  to  a  degree  that 
borders  on  brutality.  Thus,  French  newspapers  printed 
caustic  comment  on  the  size  of  the  British  army  in  Belgium 
and  France  and  of  the  sector  which  that  army  defended, 
while  one  class  after  another  of  French  conscripts  were  being 
called  to  the  colors.  The  French  did  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  this  was  sound  policy  (on  the  surface)  for  England,  as, 
with  her  men  at  home,  she  would  be  in  a  better  position  to 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  127 


capture  German  trade;  but  neither  did  they  fail  to  hint,  in 
an  unmistakable  manner,  that  these  facts  would  not  be 
forgotten  when  the  day  of  settlement  dawned. 

These,  and  many  other  matters,  made  it  clear  that  the 
British  Government  was  not  in  too  pleasant  a  position.  The 
newspapers  led  and  controlled  by  Lord  Northcliffe,  the  Tory 
Peer  who  had  been  the  strongest  supporter  of  Sir  Edward 
Carson  and  his  treasonable  practices,  accused  the  Liberal 
Government  of  being  unpractical  and  inefficient,  of  playing  a 
losing  game,  and  of  disgracing  the  country  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  The  Government  made  a  few  feeble  efforts  to  sup- 
press this  criticism,  but  it  could  not  deal  so  summarily  with 
The  Times,  The  Daily  Mail,  The  Standard,  and  The  Morning 
Post  as  it  had  done  with  Sinn  Fein  and  Irish  Freedom.  In 
England  the  liberty  of  the  Press  was  respected,  when  the 
proprietors  had  money  and  votes  in  Parliament  at  their  backs. 
Early  in  1915  it  became  apparent  that  matters  were  assuming 
a  critical  aspect.  Premier  Asquith  was  openly  attacked,  and 
Lord  Kitchener  was  accused  of  gross  negligence  in  the  conduct 
of  the  war.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  compromise. 
Thus,  in  the  early  part  of  May,  the  Prime  Minister  announced 
that  the  Government  had  decided,  in  view  of  the  condition 
of  affairs,  to  form  a  Coalition  Cabinet,  and  to  add  to  the 
Government  a  number  of  the  leaders  of  the  Tory  party. 

This  declaration  came  as  another  shock  to  the  Irish  people. 
This  move  on  the  part  of  the  Liberals  seemed  not  only  to  be 
a  confession  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Liberal  administra- 
tion, but  also  to  seal  the  fate  of  the  Home  Rule  Act.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  fate  of  this  Act  rested  on  what 
would  be  done  in  the  Amending  Bill.  If,  however,  the 
Liberals  were  not  in  power  at  the  time  of  the  introduction 
of  this  Bill,  there  was  no  possible  doubt  that  the  Home  Rule 
Act  would  be  amended  out  of  existence.  Consequently,  the 
significance  of  Premier  Asquith's  declaration  that  he  intended 
to  form  a  Cabinet  of  Liberals  and  Unionists  combined  may 
be  well  appreciated.  The  Irish  people  asked  themselves,  in 
so  far  as  they  troubled  any  longer  with  the  hypocrisies  of 


128   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


English  politics,  what  was  going  to  happen  at  the  end  of  the 
war,  and  if  the  formation  of  a  Coalition  Cabinet  was  not  but 
paving  the  way  for  the  return  to  power  of  the  Unionists. 

Another  surprise  was,  however,  forthcoming,  when,  on  May 
25,  1915,  the  Prime  Minister  announced  the  composition  of 
his  new  Cabinet.  A  number  of  Liberal  Ministers  were  re- 
moved from  the  Government,  and  their  places  filled  by  eight 
Unionists.  So  many  of  the  new  members  were  bigoted 
enemies  of  all  things  Irish  that  it  almost  seemed  as  if  opposi- 
tion to  Ireland  was  the  chief  qualification  for  a  place  in  the 
new  Cabinet.  There  were  other  capable  Tory  leaders  who 
had  not  been  so  strongly  identified  with  the  anti-Irish  propa- 
ganda, but  these  were  passed  over.  The  men  most  bitterly 
opposed  to  Home  Rule  were  selected,  and  the  fact  was  not 
unnoticed  in  Ireland. 

There  was,  however,  one  selection  that  made  the  deepest 
impression  on  the  Irish  people.  The  office  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  the  highest  law  office  in  the  gift  of  the  Crown,  was 
bestowed  on  Sir  Edward  Carson.  Carson  had  formed  the 
Ulster  Volunteers,  had  defied  the  Liberal  Government  to 
touch  him,  had  transgressed  every  section  of  the  law  of 
treason,  had  done  his  utmost  to  plunge  the  country  into  civil 
war,  had  engineered  the  gun-running,  —  in  short,  had  consti- 
tuted  himself  a  monarch  in  Ulster,  and  had  told  the  world 
that  he  would  kick  the  King's  Crown  into  the  Boyne  if  the 
Home  Rule  Act  was  put  into  operation  by  the  legally  elected 
representatives  of  the  English  people.  It  was  the  example 
of  Carson  that  had  led  the  Irish  to  run  the  guns  into  Howth, 
and  that  incident  had  resulted,  in  turn,  in  the  massacre  of 
inoffensive  Irish  civilians.  Yet,  while  the  Irish  people  were 
butchered  in  the  streets  of  their  own  capital,  Carson,  the  man 
who  was  responsible  morally  for  all  that  had  happened,  was 
elevated  to  the  Cabinet  which  he  had  lately  defied. 

Although,  in  consequence  of  the  actions  of  the  Govern- 
ment, Ireland  had  long  since  given  up  any  but  the  faintest 
hope  that  the  English  Government  had  any  sincere  intentions 
towards  Home  Rule,  the  appointment  of  Sir  Edward  Carson 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  129 


still  canie  as  a  shock.  To  those  men  who  had  never  believed 
that  the  English  intended  to  restore  to  Ireland  any  of  her 
usurped  liberties,  the  selection  of  Carson  was  not  unwelcome. 
It  gave  an  added  impetus  to  their  campaign,  and,  as  will 
shortly  be  demonstrated,  this  campaign  had  by  this  time 
reached  a  stage  where  it  needed  little  outside  assistance. 
Nevertheless,  the  action  of  the  Government  was  an  added 
proof  of  the  double  dealing  of  the  Liberal  Government.  It 
was  a  further  proof  of  the  game  of  bluff  that  was  being 
played  at  the  expense  of  the  Irish  people. 

Rumors  were  purposely  circulated  to  the  effect  that  Mr. 
Redmond  had  been  invited  to  take  a  portfolio  in  the  Coalition 
Cabinet,  but  had  refused.  It  is  very  probable  that  these 
rumors  were  circulated  to  suggest  that  Redmond  had  a  secret 
understanding  with  Premier  Asquith,  according  to  which  the 
Home  Rule  Act  would  be  put  into  operation  as  soon  as  the 
war  was  over.  Although  he  lent  his  name  to  this  attempted 
deception  of  the  Irish  people,  Mr.  Redmond  was  forced  to 
admit  at  a  later  date  that  the  Liberal  Ministry  had  neither 
then  nor  at  any  other  time  shown  any  consideration  for  his 
wishes. 

There  was  also  another  significant  feature  of  the  new 
situation.  Up  to  that  time  Redmond  had  held  the  balance 
of  power  between  the  two  English  parties.  Had  he  at  any 
time  wished  to  force  the  hand  of  the  Government  and  secure 
justice  for  Ireland,  even  to  the  extent  of  securing  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Home  Rule  Parliament  under  the  provisions  of 
the  Home  Rule  Act,  it  was  within  his  power  to  do  it  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  serving  an  ultimatum  upon  the  Liberals 
to  the  effect  that  he  would  vote  against  the  Government  on 
the  next  party  issue  and  so  drive  them  from  office.  The  fact 
that  he  did  not  do  this  is  sufficient  evidence  that  he  sanc- 
tioned or  condoned  all  the  actions  of  the  British  Government 
in  Ireland.  With  the  formation  of  the  Coalition  Government, 
however,  Mr.  Redmond  lost  the  balance  of  power.  It  was 
obvious  that  both  the  Liberal  and  Tory  Parties  would  vote 
to  uphold  the  decrees  of  a  Cabinet  composed  of  represen- 


130   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


tatives  of  both  sections,  and  that,  therefore,  whatever  Mr. 
Redmond  and  his  men  might  decide  to  do  would  not  be  of 
the  slightest  interest  to  the  Government  as  a  whole.  Mr. 
Redmond,  however,  was  not  dismayed  at  this  turn  of  events, 
for  it  meant  little  to  him.  For  some  years  he  and  his  party 
had  merely  been  adjuncts  of  the  Liberal  Party,  and  it  did 
not  matter  a  great  deal  for  him  now  to  work  hand  in  hand 
with  the  Tories  also.  During  the  years  he  had  held  the 
balance  of  power,  he  had  never  made  use  of  it,  and  it  is 
possible  that  he  was  happy  to  be  relieved  of  the  responsi- 
bility with  which  this  same  power  invested  him.  That  he 
was  not,  however,  to  be  entirely  rid  of  this  responsibility, 
was  to  be  demonstrated  before  many  months  passed. 

Another  significant  incident  took  place  shortly  after  the 
formation  of  the  Coalition  Government.  The  Home  Rule 
Act  had  received  the  Royal  Signature  in  the  preceding 
September,  when  it  had  been  arranged  that  the  Act  was  to 
be  suspended  for  twelve  months,  or  until  such  time  as  an 
Order  in  Council  might  decide.  These  twelve  months  had 
now  expired,  and  on  September  14,  1915,  a  special  Order  in 
Council,  reading: 

No  steps  shall  be  taken  to  put  the  Government  of  Ireland  Act, 
1914,  into  operation  until  the  expiration  of  eighteen  months  from 
the  date  of  the  passing  of  that  Act  unless  the  present  war  has  pre- 
viously ended,  nor,  if  at  the  expiration  of  these  eighteen  months 
the  present  war  is  not  ended,  until  such  later  date  not  being  later 
than  the  end  of  the  present  war,  as  may  hereafter  be  fixed  by  Order 
in  Council. 

The  obvious  effect  of  this  Order  was  to  make  it  clear  even 
to  those  who  were  still  doubtful  as  to  English  sincerity  that 
there  was  little,  if  any,  intention  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  putting  the  Act  into  operation  without  radical  altera- 
tion. It  mattered  little  that  the  Government  was  merely 
following  out  the  course  it  had  prescribed  for  itself.  If  not 
even  the  appreciation  of  the  vital  crisis  through  which  Eng- 
land herself  was  passing  could  induce  her  politicians  to  adopt 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  131 


a  more  liberal  policy  towards  Ireland,  was  there  the  slightest 
justification  for  hoping  for  juster  treatment  after  the  war? 
Statesmanship  demanded  concessions  which  would  have  won 
the  good-will  of  the  majority  of  Irishmen,  and  to  some  extent 
justified  England's  claim  that  she  championed  small  nations. 
If  she  now  voluntarily  subjected  herself  to  universal  derision 
for  her  hypocrisy,  rather  than  make  these  concessions,  the 
conclusion  was  obvious.  Ten  months  later  these  suspicions 
were  verified  in  a  manner  that  rendered  it  impossible  to  doubt 
that  the  actions  of  the  Government  at  this  time  were  delib- 
erately intended  to  deceive  the  Irish  people. 

These  two  actions  on  the  part  of  the  British  Government 
had  much  to  do  with  the  events  that  followed.  To  make 
it  appear  that  the  Rebellion  would  never  have  taken  place 
but  for  the  formation  of  the  Coalition  Cabinet  or  for  the 
further  postponement  of  the  Home  Rule  Act  would  be  to 
create  a  false  impression,  for  the  attempt  to  dragoon  Irish 
manhood  into  England's  army  and  other  tyrannical  measures 
were  also  contributing  factors.  But  these  two  events  were 
largely  responsible  for  opening  the  eyes  of  the  Irish  people  to 
the  actual  facts  of  the  case.  Many  in  Ireland  had  previously 
thought  that  Mr.  Redmond  was  doing  everything  in  his 
power  to  secure  justice  for  Ireland.  Those  who  still  thought 
so  after  the  end  of  1915  were  in  so  small  a  minority  as  to  be 
negligible,  for  they  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  those  who 
were  attached  to  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  for  motives 
of  personal  gain.  That  there  could  be  many  who  honestly 
believed  that  the  British  Government  and  their  Irish  allies 
were  actuated  by  any  genuine  feelings  for  Ireland  and  the 
Irish  people  is  impossible.  Every  act  of  the  Government 
and  of  the  Irish  Party  was  against  the  sincerest  convictions  of 
the  Irish  people,  as  publicly  voiced  in  resolutions  from  practi- 
cally every  elective  body  in  Ireland. 

Little  by  little  every  one  of  the  dearest  hopes  of  Ireland 
had  been  bartered  away.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  big  aspiration  of  the  Irish  people  was  one  for  freedom  — 
freedom  in  its  biggest  sense.    In  the  minds  of  the  men  who 


132   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


were  now  taking  up  the  leadership  of  Ireland,  the  vision  of 
Ireland  a  Nation  had  never  been  lost.  They  had  the  true 
ideals  of  the  patriots,  and  it  was  but  natural  that  the  weak 
and  vacillating  policy  of  Redmond  and  his  party  should 
crumble  to  pieces  before  the  onslaught  of  the  men  who  wished 
to  see  Ireland  take  her  place  amongst  the  nations.  These 
men,  while  most  of  them  were  not  actually  allied  with  the 
official  Sinn  Fein  party,  had  the  Sinn  Fein  view  of  things, 
and  many  had  also  the  belief  that  the  only  way  in  which  they 
would  ever  be  able  to  gain  anything  from  England  was  by 
force  of  arms.  The  manner  in  which  Redmond  and  Asquith 
had  acted  merely  served  to  convince  the  waverers  among  them 
that  there  was  no  other  hope  left  for  the  Irish  but  an  appeal 
to  force. 


CHAPTER  XX 


The  Shadow  of  Conscription 

IF  a  proof  be  required  that  Englishmen  are  very  loath  to 
fight  their  own  battles,  this  proof  was  furnished  during 
the  progress  of  the  European  War.  France,  Russia,  Bel- 
gium, Italy,  and  other  nations  were  quickly  in  arms;  the 
English  meanwhile  brought  to  the  field  of  battle  Canadians, 
Hindoos,  Welsh  and  Scottish,  and  members  of  a  score  of  other 
nationalities;  thus,  they  believed,  they  would  fulfill  their  obli- 
gations to  their  allies,  without  interfering  too  much  with  the 
English  people  at  home.  They  had  also  relied  on  an  army  of 
some  half  a  million  men  from  Ireland,  believing  that  Irish 
brawn  and  muscle  would  be  an  asset  of  the  greatest  value  to 
them.  The  manner  in  which  they  made  their  bid  for  Irish 
assistance  has  been  dealt  with  at  length.  That  they  failed 
was  a  necessary  consequence  of  their  own  actions.  Even  had 
the  Irish  been  friendly  to  England,  they  would  not  have  an- 
swered the  call  under  such  conditions.  No  nation  in  the  world 
would  submit  to  such  tyrannical  coercion  —  much  less  lick  the 
hand  that  held  the  whip  and  march  out  to  die  that  its  op- 
pressor might  live. 

The  loss  of  the  Irish  support  and  the  taunts  of  the  European 
Allies  made  the  British  Government  realize  that  something 
must  be  done  to  secure  a  larger  army.  It  was  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  unpleasant  alternative  of  either  creating  an 
army  among  the  English  to  defend  their  own  interests  and 
their  own  property  or  of  being  left  to  their  fate  by  their 
Allies  and  possibly  invaded  by  the  Germans.  It  was  at  this 
stage  that  the  talk  of  conscription  became  prominent  in  the 
British  Press.  The  very  evil  which  they  had  denounced  as 
one  of  the  causes  of  their  quarrel  with  Germany  was  the 
thing  they  were  themselves  forced  to  turn  to  in  order  to  save 


134   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


themselves.  Britain  found  that  her  Navalism  and  her  foreign 
credit  were  not  enough.  She  must  also  have  militarism.  So 
the  British  Cabinet  took  up,  with  reluctance,  it  is  true,  the 
question  of  conscription. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  failure  of  the  recruiting 
campaign  in  Ireland  was  the  thing  that  led,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  to  this  decision.  It  had  been  the  fond  hope  of  the 
Government  that  Mr.  Redmond  would  be  able  to  draft  the 
Volunteers  en  bloc  into  the  British  Army.  This  scheme  had 
not  failed  through  lack  of  effort  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Redmond. 
It  is  more  than  probable  that  he  would  have  been  as  glad  as 
the  Government  to  have  been  rid  of  men  who  were  in  a 
critical  mood  and  inclined  to  show  temper.  It  happened, 
however,  that  the  Volunteers,  as  well  as  numbers  not  then 
affiliated  with  that  organization,  had  decided  to  remain  at 
home  and  let  the  British  fight  for  the  rights  in  which  they 
were  interested. 

Every  effort  was  exhausted  to  solve  the  problem  without 
adopting  conscription.  This  was  not  owing  to  the  distaste  of 
the  English  for  conscription,  for  this  had  already  been  faced, 
and  the  fact  recognized  that  some  form  of  compulsion  had  to 
come.  The  trouble  again  lay  with  Ireland.  If  the  Govern- 
ment were  to  pass  a  Conscription  Act  and  leave  Ireland 
outside  its  scope,  there  would  be  a  howl  of  protest  from  the 
British  masses.  On  the  other  hand,  the  enforcement  of  con- 
scription in  Ireland  might  precipitate  a  crisis  which,  with 
the  Volunteers  still  in  the  country,  might  be  hard  to  settle. 
The  Irish,  as  even  Mr.  Redmond  was  forced  to  tell  the 
British,  would  not  have  conscription. 

While  the  negotiations  were  at  this  stage,  The  Manchester 
Guardian,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential  of  the 
Government  organs  in  the  provinces,  came  out  with  the 
announcement  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Irish  to  fight  for 
the  Empire  and  let  the  British  stay  at  home  for  the  purpose 
of  making  the  required  preparations  to  capture  the  trade  of 
the  Germans  when  the  war  would  be  over.  This  was  a  new 
instance  of  British  insolence.    That  the  British  would  go  to 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  13o 


any  lengths  rather  than  do  their  fighting  for  themselves  was 
now  a  recognized  fact;  but  that  they  should  have  the  effron- 
tery to  state  as  much  in  cold  print  was  somewhat  startling. 
This  announcement,  which  was  given  wide  publicity  in  Ire- 
land, helped  the  Irish  people  to  realize  the  truth  of  the 
matter.  It  was  an  open  confession  that  the  average  English- 
man was  a  coward,  in  spite  of  the  wonderful  victories  that 
the  "British"  army  has  been  credited  with  in  the  past,  and 
that  his  aim  was  to  make  the  Irish  fight  his  battle  with  the 
Germans,  just  as  he  had  armed  the  Indians  against  the 
Americans,  in  the  War  of  Independence. 

The  Volunteer  Scheme,  inaugurated  by  Lord  Derby  as  a 
last  resort  to  avoid  conscription,  was  a  rank  failure,  and  was 
admitted  as  such  by  the  Government.  After  the  scheme  had 
been  in  operation  for  several  months,  it  was  found  that  there 
were  still  almost  one  million  bachelors  of  military  age  who 
had  not  responded  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  even'  effort  was 
made  to  shame  the  men  into  joining  the  army.  Eventually, 
therefore,  the  Government  was  forced  to  face  the  fact  that 
the  only  way  to  get  the  Britisher  into  a  military  uniform  was 
by  force.  A  draft  was  thus  decided  on,  and  little  by  little 
put  into  operation. 

The  presence  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  and  the  fact  that  they 
were  armed  and  drilled,  still  presented  a  thorny  problem,  but 
one  that  the  British  were  determined  to  overcome.  Prepara- 
tions were  made  whereby  the  Volunteer  trouble  might  be 
eliminated.  There  was  only  one  way  —  apart  from  concession 
of  Home  Rule  —  in  which  this  could  be  done  now,  since  the 
Volunteers  had  made  it  obvious  that  they  had  not  the  slightest 
intention  of  leaving  Ireland  to  fight  the  Germans.  This  one 
way  was  by  taking  the  arms  from  the  Volunteers.  Once 
disarmed,  the  matter  would  be  comparatively  simple.  Not 
only  the  Volunteers  but  the  other  men  of  the  country  would 
then  be  helpless  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  British  Government. 
In  addition,  it  would  also  release  a  large  portion  of  the 
British  army  that  were  being  kept  in  Ireland  as  a  precau- 
tionary measure. 


136   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


The  people  of  Ireland  were  not  long  in  hearing  rumors  of 
what  was  proposed.  Mr.  Redmond  was  also  well  aware  of 
the  plan  to  disarm  the  Volunteers  as  the  first  step  towards 
bringing  the  country  within  the  scope  of  the  Conscription 
Act,  but  he  kept  silent  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  strenu- 
ously denounced  every  suggestion  that  that  Act  should  be 
applied  to  Ireland.  These  denunciations  were  made  at  a 
time  when  the  Volunteers  were  in  full  possession  of  their 
strength,  and  he  was  sufficiently  aware  of  the  facts  of  the 
situation  to  know  that  the  application  of  conscription  to 
Ireland  would  immediately  precipitate  an  outbreak,  in  which 
his  fortunes  as  well  as  those  of  the  Government  with  which 
he  was  so  affectionately  affiliated  would  hang  precariously  in 
the  balance. 

It  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  conscription  issue 
was  to  be  the  test  of  the  whole  situation  in  Ireland.  The 
leaders  who  had  sprung  up  there  and  were  more  in  touch  with 
the  people  than  were  Mr.  Redmond  and  his  friends  in  the 
Government  were  also  aware  of  the  peril  that  confronted 
them.  The  conscription  issue  caused  them  to  work  with  more 
vigor  than  before,  to  do  everything  possible  to  have  their 
preparations  perfected  when  the  time  came  for  action.  They 
had  definitely  decided  that,  if  they  were  to  do  any  fighting, 
they  would  do  it  on  their  own  soil;  that,  if  they  were  going 
to  fight  for  the  freedom  of  any  country,  it  would  be  for  the 
freedom  of  the  land  they  loved.  They  had  made  up  their 
minds  also  that  the  time  had  come  to  show  the  world  where 
Ireland  stood,  and  to  expose  the  lies  and  misrepresentations 
that  had  been  scattered  broadcast  by  men  who  were  posing 
as  Irish  leaders,  while  ignoring  the  opinions  of  the  Irish 
people.  They  knew  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when  they 
would  have  to  give  stern  and  practical  proof  of  the  faith  that 
was  in  them,  but  they  were  determined  that  they  would  not 
be  found  wanting. 

In  the  preceding  pages,  owing  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  the  attention  of  the  reader  has  been  necessarily  directed 
to  the  English  side  of  the  Irish  Sea.    We  may  now  turn  again 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  137 


to  the  Irish  side  of  the  picture  to  consider  the  significance  of 
the  events  that  were  shaping  themselves  there. 

It  will  now  be  our  duty  to  consider  the  men  and  the 
organizations  that  were  soon  to  strike  another  blow  for  Irish 
Freedom.  Much  has  been  written  about  these  men  and 
these  organizations  by  writers  without  direct  or  immediate 
knowledge  of  either.  The  following  chapters,  whatever  their 
other  shortcomings,  will  be  free  at  least  from  this  cardinal 
defect,  for  they  are  based  on  a  personal  and  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  both.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  this  portion  of  the 
work  especially  is  based  on  the  personal  experiences  of  the 
author,  the  reader  who  desires  primarily  the  authentic  facts 
will  overlook  what  might  otherwise  be  deemed  the  unneces- 
sary obtrusion  of  the  author's  personality  into  an  historical 
narrative. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


The  Gathering  of  the  Clans 

ONE  of  the  commonest  errors  made  by  writers  with- 
out any  personal  knowledge  of  the  situation  in  Ire- 
land was  the  placing  of  the  label  of  "Sinn  Fein" 
upon  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916.  It  was  not  a  Sinn  Fein 
Rebellion;  it  was  an  Irish  Rebellion.  The  Sinn  Fein  organiza- 
tion, as  represented  by  its  members,  had  indeed  much  to  do 
with  the  Rebellion,  but  so  had  at  least  six  other  organizations. 
Furthermore,  the  majority  of  the  men  who  figured  most 
prominently  in  the  Rebellion  belonged  to  the  Irish  Republican 
Brotherhood.  A  short  description  of  the  six  organizations  is 
the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter. 

The  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood  was  formally  organized 
on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  1858,  on  the  arrival  of  James  Stephens 
in  America  from  Ireland.  The  I.  R.  B.,  as  it  was  generally 
known,  was  the  direct  successor  to  the  Emmet  Monument 
Association,  which  had  been  organized  in  1855,  and  had  for 
its  object  the  freedom  of  Ireland  —  the  only  fitting  monu- 
ment to  Robert  Emmet's  memory.  The  organization  spread 
rapidly  throughout  the  United  States  and  Ireland.  It  was 
the  I.  R.  B.  that  organized  the  rebellion  that  started  on 
March  4,  1867,  and  it  was  the  I.  R.  B.  that  had  subsequently 
maintained  the  agitation  for  complete  independence.  Even 
when  the  possibility  of  freeing  Ireland  seemed  most  remote, 
the  leaders  of  this  organization  did  not  despair.  They  held 
always  to  the  belief  that  Ireland  must  be  free,  and  that  bullet 
and  steel  were  the  only  means  by  which  her  liberation  could 
be  wrung  from  England. 

Among  the  men  who  had  been,  as  it  were,  born  in  this 
movement  was  John  Devoy,  and  to  him  the  credit  must  be 
largely  given  for  keeping  the  movement  alive  in  the  face  of 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  139 


great  opposition.  A  man  of  the  widest  experience  of  the 
world,  his  knowledge  of  Ireland  was  unique.  After  a  period 
of  service  in  the  French  Foreign  Legion  in  Algeria,  where 
he  received  his  military  training,  Devoy  returned  to  Ireland 
in  1862,  settled  at  Athy,  in  County  Kildare,  and  joined  the 
local  circle  of  the  I.  R.  B.  His  record  from  that  time  was  one 
of  continuous  service  to  the  cause  of  Ireland,  both  at  home 
and  in  America.  In  America  he  later  became  the  editor  of 
The  Gaelic  American,  the  official  organ  of  the  Brotherhood, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  active  promoters  of  every  genuine 
movement  tending  towards  the  freedom  of  Ireland. 

In  spite  of  advancing  years,  Devoy  never  lost  that  vigor  of 
mind  which  distinguished  his  younger  days.  He  was  a  clear 
and  cool  thinker,  a  man  capable  of  analyzing  every  situation  as 
it  arose,  applying  to  it,  as  the  supreme  test,  its  bearing  on 
Irish  national  independence.  Nothing  less  would  satisfy  his 
conception  of  justice  for  his  native  land,  and  his  strenuous 
opposition  to  John  Redmond  dated  from  the  moment  when 
he  discovered  that  the  latter  was  willing  to  whittle  away  the 
claims  of  Ireland. 

Under  Devoy 's  leadership  the  I.  R.  B.  became  strong  in 
America  and  was  soon  able  to  be  of  practical  aid  and  assist- 
ance to  the  organization  in  Ireland.  The  two  countries  were 
in  close  and  constant  touch,  and  The  Gaelic  American  in  New 
York  City,  and  Irish  Freedom  in  Dublin,  did  yeoman  work 
in  rousing  the  people  from  their  lethargy. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Irish  Volunteers  came  into  being 
has  already  been  mentioned.  It  is  only  necessary  to  recall 
here  that,  while  Redmond  still  held  control  of  a  small  remnant 
of  the  original  body  (the  Irish  National  Volunteers),  the  vast 
majority  had  forsaken  the  so-called  Irish  Leader  and  joined 
the  Irish  Volunteers,  led  by  Eoin  MacNeill,  who  had  opposed 
Redmond's  efforts  to  hand  the  organization  over  to  the 
British  Government.  By  the  time  of  the  rebellion,  the  Irish 
Volunteers  were  all  in  active  agreement  with  the  leaders  of 
the  I.  R.  B.,  to  which  organization  many  of  them  belonged. 

Considerable  mention   has  also  been  made  of  the  Sinn 


140   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Feiners,  and  their  policy  has  been  explained  in  full.  That 
policy,  however,  was  not  a  physical  force  policy,  and  for  some 
years  there  existed  active  disagreement  between  the  I.  R.  B. 
and  the  Sinn  Fein  Party.  In  effect  their  aims  were  identical. 
The  difference  was  that  the  I.  R.  B.  believed  that  physical 
force  was  the  only  possible  remedy  for  the  ills  of  Ireland, 
while  the  Sinn  Feiners  inclined  rather  to  a  policy  of  passive 
resistance,  coupled  with  an  energetic  awakening  of  the  spirit 
of  the  people  and  the  encouragement  of  the  cult  of  self- 
reliance.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  Arthur  Griffith 
always  believed  that  the  final  test  would  be  the  appeal  to 
arms,  and  that  nothing  else  would  win  the  final  fight  for  the 
freedom  of  the  country. 

The  Citizen  Army  was  composed  of  the  men  of  the  Irish 
Transport  and  General  Workers'  Union,  with  headquarters 
at  Liberty  Hall  on  the  corner  of  Beresford  Place  and  Eden 
Quay.  This  organization  sprang  into  being  about  the  same 
time  as  the  National  Volunteers,  when  Dublin  was  in  the 
throes  of  the  struggle  between  the  Irish  workers  and  the 
banded  employers  of  the  city.  Curiously  enough,  the  Citizen 
Army  was  at  first  in  active  opposition  both  to  the  Volun- 
teers and  the  Sinn  Fein  Party.  Their  official  organ,  The  Irish 
Worker,  attacked  both  Eoin  MacNeill  and  Arthur  Griffith 
with  refreshing  impartiality,  but  this  condition  of  affairs 
came  to  an  end  with  the  transfer  of  the  leadership  from  James 
Larkin  to  James  Connolly  in  1914. 

Of  the  other  organizations  particular  mention  must  be  made 
of  the  Gaelic  League,  which  was  founded  in  1893,  and  for  some 
years  inhabited  unpretentious  back  rooms  in  Dublin.  When 
Father  Eugene  O'Growney,  in  a  moment  of  inspiration,  pro- 
duced his  44  Simple  Lessons  in  Irish,"  its  real  progress  began. 
At  first,  the  Gaelic  League  was  the  target  for  superficial 
scoffers,  but,  founded  on  the  living  rock  of  national  conscious- 
ness, its  influence  grew  very  rapidly.  The  addition  of  local 
branches,  the  holding  of  the  annual  Oireachtas  (National 
Festival)  in  Dublin  and  of  Feiseanna  (little  festivals)  through- 
out the  country,  the  revival  of  Irish  dancing  and  music,  and 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  141 


the  fostering  of  Irish  industries,  won  an  ever-widening  circle 
of  supporters  for  the  movement.  The  founding  of  the  Indus- 
trial Development  Association  was  another  most  important 
result  of  the  activities  of  the  League.  The  Gaelic  League 
thus  strove,  by  every  means  in  its  power,  to  promote  every- 
thing that  was  Irish,  always  according  the  Gaelic  language 
the  first  place  among  the  factors  making  for  a  truly  Irish 
Ireland. 

With  a  view  to  reviving  the  fine  democracy  of  the  Ireland 
of  old,  the  Gaelic  League  strove  strenuously  and  successfully 
to  break  down  the  ridiculous  social  barriers  introduced  into 
Ireland  with  English  feudalism.  Aerdheachtanna,  Cuir- 
meachta,  Ceoil,  Seilgeanna,  Feiseanna,  Dancing  Classes,  and 
other  methods  were  established  with  this  end  in  view.  The 
complete  Irishing  of  the  mental  outlook  of  the  people  was 
aimed  at.  Teachers  and  organizers  were  sent  out  all  over 
the  country,  and  their  work  was  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  counteracting  the  Anglicizing  influences  that  had  been 
brought  to  bear  on  the  people  for  centuries  previously. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Gaelic  League  kept  strictly  aloof 
from  local  or  national  politics.  Its  work  terminated  where 
politics  began.  But  the  effect  of  the  teachings  and  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  Gaelic  League  was  seen  in  the  manner  of  men  it 
produced.  The  boys  and  youths  who  attended  the  classes  of 
i  the  Gaelic  League  were  all  convinced  "Irish-Irelanders." 
Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  organizers  were  the  same.  It  was, 
therefore,  only  to  be  expected  that  these  men  would  take  an 
active  part  in  the  revolutionary  movement. 

That  all  the  work  was  not  to  be  left  to  the  men  became 
evident  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  when  the  Cumann 
na  mBan  (or  Irish  Women's  Council)  was  organized.  Mrs. 
Thomas  Clarke  and  many  other  prominent  women  were  the 
active  organizers  of  this  society,  which  had  for  its  object  the 
assisting  of  the  men  in  every  possible  way.  That  this  assist- 
ance was  meant  to  be  very  practical  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  all  the  women  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan  learned  to  handle 
rifle  and  revolver.    The  movement  spread  quickly  through 


142   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Ireland,  and,  when  the  time  for  action  came,  the  women 
of  Dublin  played  an  heroic  and  conspicuous  role  in  the 
Revolution. 

Particular  mention  has  also  to  be  made  of  the  Fianna  na 
hEirinn  (or  the  Irish  Boy  Scouts).  Organized  in  1912  by 
the  Countess  Markievicz,  this  organization  brought  into  the 
national  movement  the  boys  and  youths  of  Ireland,  and  made 
of  them  Gaels  of  the  Gael.  Inspired  by  stories  of  the  Fianna 
of  old  —  that  hero  army  of  Ireland  that  flourished  in  the 
Golden  Age  under  the  leadership  of  Fionn  MacCumhal  —  the 
boys  of  Ireland  joined  the  movement  with  all  the  wonder  and 
enthusiasm  inherent  in  the  Irish  boy  unspoiled  by  English 
contagion.  By  yeoman  work  in  this  field,  Countess  Markie- 
vicz made  the  organization  the  best  in  the  country. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  the  Revolution  was 
aided  by  the  men,  women,  and  even  the  children  of  Dublin. 
As  has  been  said  there  were  dividing  lines  between  these 
organizations,  but  these  lines  disappeared  before  the  attacks 
of  the  common  enemy.  All  these  organizations  were  at  work 
long  before  the  Revolution,  and  the  majority  long  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  The  inspiring  motive  of  them  all  was 
the  same,  for  each  was  but  a  different  expression  of  the  funda- 
mental need  for  liberty  of  action  which  is  the  breath  of  every 
nation.  Liberty  or  extinction,  —  no  other  choice  is  possible 
for  a  nation.  Where  class  oppression  exists,  there  can  be  no 
social  peace.  While  nations  are  oppressed,  dreams  of  world 
peace  are  futile.  England's  assertion  that  the  Irish  Revolu- 
tion was  due  to  some  strange  spell  cast  by  Germany  over  the 
Irish  people  can  deceive  no  thinking  man.  For,  even  sup- 
posing that  the  first  incitement  to  rebellion  had  been  given  by 
Germany  and  not  by  murderous  attacks  on  innocent  people 
on  Bachelor's  Walk  and  in  O'Connell  Street,  the  fact  remains 
that  after  centuries  of  experience  of  English  rule  the  Irish 
people  eagerly  embraced  the  opportunity  to  get  rid  of  it. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


Righteous  Men 

THOMAS  DAVIS  saw  clearly  into  the  future  when  he 
wrote  in  the  poem  which  serves  at  present  as  Ireland's 
National  Anthem :  — 

"For  freedom  comes  from  God's  right  hand 
And  needs  a  godly  train; 
And  righteous  men  must  make  our  land 
A  nation  once  again." 

Of  all  the  men  who  took  part  in  the  battle  for  the  free- 
dom of  Ireland  in  1916,  it  may  be  said  that  they  corresponded 
fully  with  Davis's  dream  and  hope.  They  had  lived  well  that 
they  might  die  well,  and  their  deaths  were  but  the  fitting 
conclusion  to  lives  spent  in  unselfish  and  sincere  devotion  and 
loyalty  to  the  land  they  loved  so  well. 

On  a  bitterly  cold  evening  in  January,  1910,  the  writer 
went  with  a  friend  to  a  small  store  at  the  corner  of  O'Connell 
and  Parnell  Street  (or  Great  Britain  Street,  as  the  latter  was 
then  known).  The  store  was  of  a  size  that  did  not  permit 
more  than  half  a  dozen  men  to  stand  in  front  of  the  counter 
at  a  time.  There  was  just  about  enough  space  between  the 
counter  and  the  wall  for  two  men  to  walk  in  together.  Along 
the  wall  were  arranged  all  of  the  important  Dublin  and  Irish 
newspapers,  weekly  and  monthly  periodicals,  and  so  forth. 
Behind  the  short  and  narrow  counter  was  a  large  assortment 
of  brands  of  tobacco,  cigars,  pipes,  and  cigarettes,  with  a  side 
line  of  stationery.  The  window  was  occupied  mainly  by  a 
cardboard  representation  of  an  Irish  Round  Tower,  adver- 
tising the  Banba  brand  of  Irish  tobacco.  Both  the  window 
and  the  store  itself  were  brilliantly  lighted,  and  the  whole 
place  suggested  care  and  attention  and  spotless  cleanliness. 


144   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


But  the  store  and  its  attractiveness  were  forgotten  after 
the  first  glance  at  the  man  who  stood  behind  the  counter. 
Of  medium  height,  with  gray  hair  thinning  away  from  the 
temples,  with  dark-blue  eyes  deeply  sunken  under  shaggy 
brows  and  high  cheek-bones  standing  up  in  startling  promi- 
nence from  thin,  sunken,  and  emaciated  cheeks,  the  general 
appearance  of  the  man  was  such  as  to  bring  to  the  mind 
pictures  of  a  watchful  eagle  perched  high  upon  a  rocky  crag. 
The  whole  aspect  of  the  man  was  keenness  personified.  Seem- 
ingly nearing  the  seventies,  he  was,  nevertheless,  possessed  of 
a  force  and  vigor  that  might  well  have  been  envied  by  men 
in  their  early  thirties.  The  truth  was  that  the  man  was  in 
the  prime  of  life.  Brutality  and  confinement,  however,  had 
left  on  his  features  a  mark  that  death  alone  could  remove,  but 
had  been  powerless  to  subdue  the  fire  that  glowed  within  and 
animated  every  thought  and  action  of  his  life. 

"Tom,"  said  my  companion  to  him,  "this  is  our  friend 
whom  you  have  been  expecting."  Then,  turning  to  me,  he 
uttered  the  simple  words:  "Tom  Clarke." 

Thomas  J.  Clarke  was  a  man  whom  to  know  was  to  respect. 
As  a  business  man,  he  had  made  a  success  of  his  life  under 
circumstances  that  would  have  sent  others  to  an  early  grave. 
He  was  a  native  of  Dnngannon,  and  in  1879  emigrated  to  the 
United  States,  where  he  became  adjutant  of  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers of  New  York  City.  In  1881  he  was  sentenced  to  penal 
servitude  for  life  in  England  for  his  nationalist  activities.  In 
1898  he  was  released  on  ticket-of-leave,  and  the  following  year 
he  returned  to  America,  where  he  married  a  niece  of  his  fel- 
low-worker, John  Daly  of  Limerick.  He  returned  to  Dublin 
in  1907,  where  he  started  once  more  in  business  in  Parnell 
Street,  and  rapidly  built  up  a  comfortable  little  fortune.  He 
also  improved  in  his  health,  but  his  treatment  in  English 
jails,  and  the  long  term  that  he  served  there  before  gaining 
his  release,  had  withered  the  flesh  on  his  bones  and  dug  the 
hollows  in  his  cheeks. 

His  zeal  and  his  unquestioned  integrity  soon  brought  him 
to  the  forefront  of  the  national  movement.    Many  of  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  145 


visitors  who  drifted  casually  into  his  store  and  gazed,  per- 
haps with  pity,  at  the  seemingly  haggard  old  man,  would 
have  been  amazed  had  they  known  of  the  power  and  influence 
he  wielded.  They  would  have  marveled  less  had  they  seen 
him,  when  the  occasion  was  opportune,  discussing  the  political 
situation  aud  the  plans  for  the  recovery  of  Irish  freedom. 
Long  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  Europe  he  and  the 
men  with  whom  he  was  so  closely  associated  had  planned 
with  care  and  thoroughness  events  that  were  later  to  arouse 
the  world.  In  1910  these  plans  were  well  advanced,  and  the 
arrangements  for  the  opening  of  the  campaign  to  awaken 
the  people  were  nearing  completion.  So  far  as  Ireland,  and 
particularly  Dublin,  was  concerned,  Thomas  J.  Clarke  was  the 
center  and  the  soul  of  the  movement  for  Irish  independence. 

Closely  associated  with  Clarke  was  Sean  MacDermott,  a 
native  of  County  Leitrim  and  one  of  the  finest  types  of  young 
men  that  Ireland  produces.  An  athlete  from  his  head  to  his 
toes,  Sean  appealed  irresistibly  to  all  who  knew  him.  He  was 
a  young  man  in  his  early  twenties  when  I  first  met  him,  and 
at  our  very  first  meeting  I  was  impressed  by  the  idea  that  he 
represented  my  ideal  of  an  Irish  youth.  He  was  of  medium 
height,  with  dark  hair  and  blue  eyes,  with  a  frank  and  fear- 
less gaze  that  made  it  impossible  to  doubt  of  his  sincerity. 
Sean  MacDermott  was  a  man  of  sterling  qualities  —  a  man 
who  loved  Ireland's  every  rock  and  stone,  whose  delight  it 
was  to  travel  throughout  the  country,  meeting  the  people  and 
conversing  with  them,  singing  the  old  songs  and  writing  new 
ones,  dancing  in  the  barns  and  at  the  cross-roads,  and  entering 
with  enthusiasm  into  every  phase  of  national  life  and  action. 
He  was  keenly  interested  in  Gaelic  sports,  and  took  part  in 
the  hurling  and  football  matches,  until  his  work  for  the  cause, 
and  later  his  illness,  rendered  it  impossible.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  tragic  features  of  this  illness  that  it  should  have 
attacked  a  man  who  was  so  passionately  fond  of  all  forms  of 
outdoor  exercise. 

Shortly  after  the  promulgation  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  in 
1905,  Sean  MacDermott  became  associated  with  the  move- 


146   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


ment,  although  he  was  then  but  a  mere  boy.  His  enthusiasm, 
however,  and  the  earnestness  with  which  he  worked,  resulted 
in  his  being  engaged  as  an  organizer,  and  in  this  capacity  he 
traveled  around  the  country  addressing  meetings  and  forming 
branches.  His  thorough  knowledge  of  the  feelings  of  the  Irish 
people  as  a  whole,  and  his  geniality  towards  all  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact,  contributed  in  no  small  measure  to  his  suc- 
cess. On  the  other  hand,  this  very  success  earned  for  him 
enemies  among  those  who  had  the  best  of  reasons  to  fear  the 
new  movement,  and  on  two  occasions  Sean  was  shot  at  and 
had  narrow  escapes  from  assassination. 

When  the  Sinn  Fein  National  Council  decided  that  they 
would  accede  to  Mr.  Redmond's  plea  for  a  truce  and  refrain 
from  putting  into  operation  any  part  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy 
that  might  embarrass  the  actions  of  the  Parliamentary  Party 
in  their  fight  for  Home  Rule,  Sean  decided  that  the  time  had 
come  for  him  to  affiliate  himself  with  a  more  vigorous  organi- 
zation. He  was  one  of  the  many  who  did  not  agree  with 
the  decision  of  the  National  Council,  believing  that  it  would 
have  been  far  better  to  have  prosecuted  the  Sinn  Fein  policy 
vigorously,  since  the  country  was  ripe  for  it,  and  it  would  give 
far  better  results  than  the  Parliamentary  Party  would  ever 
be  able  to  obtain  even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
When  he  became  a  member  of  the  I.  R.  B.,  Sean  threw  him- 
self into  the  work  with  his  characteristic  energy,  and  soon 
became  one  of  Thomas  Clarke's  lieutenants.  He  also  became 
an  organizer  for  the  Wolf  Tone  Clubs,  a  movement  that  aimed 
at  securing  the  right  recruits  for  the  actual  Brotherhood. 
With  Dr.  Patrick  MacCartan,  Thomas  J.  Clarke,  and  others, 
he  was  instrumental  in  the  establishment  of  Irish  Freedom,  a 
weekly  newspaper  that  had  for  its  objects  the  arousing  of  the 
men  of  Ireland  to  action.  Under  the  editorship  of  Mac- 
Cartan, the  paper  made  a  gallant  struggle  for  recognition. 
It  brought  into  Ireland  something  of  the  old  spirit  that  so 
many  believed  to  be  dead,  and  little  by  little  it  gained  the 
confidence  and  the  affection  of  the  people. 

Shortly  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  King  George  V 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  147 


decided  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  subjects  in  Ireland.  Immediately 
on  the  announcement  of  this  decision  on  the  part  of  His 
Majesty  preparations  to  give  him  a  public  welcome  were 
inaugurated  in  some  quarters,  although  Nationalist  Ireland 
had  always  stood  aloof  on  the  occasion  of  royal  visits.  Those 
who  desired  to  see  Ireland  remain  under  the  heel  of  England 
prepared,  however,  to  engineer  a  "loyal"  reception;  those 
who  had  other  ideals  for  Ireland  also  made  preparations, 
and  one  of  the  hardest  workers  among  the  latter  was  Sean 
MacDermott. 

As  illustrative  of  the  temper  of  the  city  and  of  the  country 
about  this  time,  the  editorial  which  appeared  in  Irish  Freedom 
on  June  7,  1911,  may  be  reprinted  here.  This  editorial  will 
also  serve  as  an  interesting  example  of  the  revolutionary 
literature  of  the  time.  Thousands  of  copies  of  the  paper  were 
sold,  while  the  posters  advertising  it  and  bearing  the  legend 
in  bold  type,  "concessions  be  damned!"  were  displayed 
from  one  end  of  the  city  to  the  other.    The  article  follows: 

i  few  c  #  %&  c  **$    fte?  p^&Af  ff$  / 

By  the  time  these  lines  meet  the  eyes  of  our  readers,  King  George 
of  England  will  be  well  on  his  way  to  this  island,  to  be  received  with 
slavish  worship  by  the  jelly-fish  and  snakes  that  infest  the  country. 
There  will  be  presentation  of  addresses  from  certain  Corporations 
and  Councils,  much  adoration,  and  a  certain  amount  of  title-bestow- 
ing on  jelly-fish.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  we  have  a  word  to  say  to 
our  visitor  and  to  all  whom  it  may  concern. 

This  visit  has  been  termed  a  visit  of  conciliation  and  peace.  It 
is  nothing  of  the  kind;  it  is  a  visit  to  corrupt  the  political  conscience 
of  the  nation,  an  arrogant  insult  to  our  intelligence,  an  assumption 
that  we  are  all  jelly-fish.  At  no  time  more  than  at  the  present  time 
was  there  need  for  plain  and  honest  speaking  on  this  question. 
The  collection  of  jelly-fish,  which  calls  itself  an  Irish  National 
Party,  has  intimated  that  it  only  awaits  Home  Rule  to  become 
fervid  upholders  of  the  Empire,  that  the  Irish  people  are  in  reality 
yearning  to  be  in  a  position  to  participate  in  the  "universal  rejoic- 
ings throughout  the  Empire"  at  the  present  time.  Irish  National- 
ists throughout  the  country  —  with  the  degrading  exception  of 
that  portion  of  Cork  which  William  O'Brien  has  made  mad  —  have 
generally  refused  to  acknowledge  this  visit,  or  to  bow  the  knee,  but 


148   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


such  is  the  confusion  that  they  have  all  shrunk  from  an  open  and 
unmitigated  refusal,  and  have  thought  it  necessary  to  intimate  or 
to  hint  that  "the  time  is  not  yet  ripe." 

Now,  therefore,  this  is  to  declare  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that 
the  time  will  never  be  ripe,  that  neither  the  statesmanship  of  John 
Redmond  nor  the  economics  of  Tom  Kettle  represent  the  Irish 
nation;  that  George  is  usurper  of  Ireland,  not  King  of  it,  King  only 
of  so  much  of  it  as  he  can  overawe  by  his  bayonets  or  bribe  with 
his  gold  and  his  titles;  and  that  Ireland  wants  no  concession  from 
England.  We  want  what  is  ours,  that  is  our  country,  and  by  the 
Lord  we  mean  to  have  it,  come  what  may. 

On  occasions  like  this  it  is  suddenly  discovered  that  King  George 
is  a  man,  and  that  the  native  courtesy  of  the  Irish  people  demands 
that  they  should  not  insult  him,  but  should  allow  the  snakes  and 
jelly-fish  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the  nation.  To  which  we  have 
to  say  that  he  is  not  a  man,  but  an  instrument,  moved  upon  the 
board  by  the  game  political  machine  that  guides  the  microbe-hunting 
of  Ishbel  Aberdeen,  who  is  not  a  woman  but  an  instrument  likewise. 
We  mean  no  disrespect  to  the  man,  because  we  see  none;  we  only 
see  the  representative  of  the  faithless  nation  which  cannot  be  an 
honest  tyrant,  but  must  always  be  a  hypocritical  one,  doing  the 

devil's  work  on  Bible  texts.   ,T^— 

<v  The  only  thing  which  we  want  of  England  is  to  be  let  alone, 
to  be  free  from  her  grip  at  our  throat  and  her  hand  in  our  pocket. 
We  want  her  to  draw  off  her  soldiers  and  her  statesmen  and  her 
Bureaucracy,  and  the  whole  hideous  devil's  device  which  passes  as 
a  Government  in  Ireland.  We  want  this  done,  but  we  do  not  ask 
England  to  do  it;  we  do  not  beg  or  pray;  we  make  no  bargain,  and 
we  call  no  truce;  this  is  a  fight,  not  an  amusement  or  a  game.  We, 
representing  that  portion  of  the  nation  which  is  in  the  National 
tradition,  the  backbone  of  the  nation,  we  call  upon  our  fellow-coun- 
trymen everywhere  to  free  their  country,  and  we  tell  them  that 
they  can  do  it,  and  that  no  other  power  can  or  will.  We  scorn  and 
spit  upon  the  Empire,  an  Empire  built  upon  blood  and  desolation; 
we  shall  never  remain  in  it  willingly;  we  want  none  of  its  spoils 
and  we  repudiate  its  atrocities;  we  will  not  sell  our*  birthright  for 
a  mess  of  pottage  or  for  a  King's  feast. 

We  stand  for  Ireland;  in  the  fact  of  hog,  dog  or  devil  we  stand 
for  Ireland,  not  for  an  Ireland  a  portion  of  any  Empire,  not  for  an 
Ireland  in  swaddling  clothes  and  leading  strings,  but  for  a  self-reliant, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  149 


free  Ireland,  with  no  sins  upon  its  soul,  and  no  stains  upon  its  ban- 
ner. We  stand  for  that  Ireland  which  produced  Brian,  whose 
chosen  place  was  the  battlefield  while  foreigners  held  sway  in  his 
country;  and  Hugh,  Shane  and  Owen  O'Neill,  and  O'Donnell  the 
Red  and  Roger  O'More,  and  Tone  and  Emmet  and  Fitzgerald,  and 
Mitchel  and  Davis  and  Stevens  and  Rooney.  Dead  names  crowd 
upon  our  memory,  dead  men  crowd  before  our  eyes,  the  gallant  dead 
whose  names  we  know,  and  the  equally  gallant  dead  whose  names 
we  do  not  know.  Out  of  the  four-fifths  of  Ireland  and  out  of  Ulster 
they  come,  a  silent  company,  bearing  witness  to  the  nation,  bearing 
witness  by  their  wounds,  marks  of  the  hangman,  marks  of  the  heads- 
man, marks  of  the  prison  and  assassin,  marks  of  the  torturer,  marks 
of  the  slave-overseer,  marks  of  starvation,  bearing  witness  by  then- 
deeds  and  their  courage,  bearing  witness  by  their  deaths.  We  take 
our  stand  with  them.  On  their  behalf,  on  our  own  behalf,  on  the 
behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  we  repudiate  all  bargains 
or  treaties  concerning  the  rights  of  this  nation. 

CONCESSIONS  BE  DAMNED,   WE  WANT  OUR  COUNTRY ! 

If*  #  53- 

As  will  be  shown  later,  there  is  a  striking  resemblance 
between  parts  of  this  editorial  and  the  Proclamation  of  the 
Irish  Republic.  It  will  be  of  interest  also  to  note  that  these 
were  no  empty  vaporings,  as  some  may  have  thought  at  the 
time.  Tom  Clarke  and  Sean  MacDermott,  the  two  men  who, 
in  collaboration,  produced  the  editorial,  were  destined,  before 
the  passage  of  many  years,  to  take  their  stand  in  death  beside 
those  Irish  heroes  whose  examples  they  had  so  nobly  followed 
in  life. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


The  Spirit  of  the  Gael 

UNDER  the  combined  protection  of  a  large  portion 
of  his  army,  a  considerable  number  of  battleships, 
the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Police,  the  Royal  Irish  Con- 
stabulary, and  an  army  of  spies  and  detectives,  King  George 
of  England  returned  to  his  home  across  the  Irish  Sea  in 
safety.  The  Irish  people  had  ignored  him;  had  looked  upon 
his  visit  with  distaste,  and  were  well  pleased  when  the  ordeal 
was  over,  and  he  and  his  army  and  navy  and  retinue  of 
cheap-jacks  had  relieved  Dublin  of  their  presence.  The  tem- 
porary transfer  of  Windsor  Castle  and  Leicester  Square  to 
Dublin  had  turned  the  Irish  metropolis  by  day  into  a  deserted 
city  and  by  night  into  a  den  of  infamy. 

The  work  and  the  worry  of  that  period,  however,  left  a 
lasting  mark  upon  Sean  MacDermott.  A  few  weeks  later 
he  was  stricken  with  that  mysterious  plague,  infantile  paraly- 
sis, and  for  months  he  lingered  in  the  Mater  Hospital  between 
life  and  death.  When  at  length  he  fought  his  way  back  to 
life,  he  was  merely  a  shadow  of  his  former  self.  He  came 
from  the  hospital  crippled  and  bent.  He  walked  slowly  and 
with  difficulty  —  first  with  a  crutch,  and  later  with  the  aid  of 
a  walking  stick.  But  the  spirit  that  had  animated  the  Sean 
MacDermott  of  the  playing  fields  and  the  street  meetings  was 
as  vigorous  as  ever.  He  plunged  once  more  into  the  work  of 
editing  his  paper,  and,  assisted  by  Bulmer  Hobson,  did  noble 
service  in  carrying  on  the  movement. 

Another  of  the  men  who  worked  day  and  night  for  the 
Irish  cause  was  The  O'Rahilly,  head  of  the  Kerry  clan  of 
that  name.  In  spite  of  his  distinguished  title,  he  was  one  of 
the  most  democratic  of  men,  a  man  who  had  learned  to  love 
his  fellow-men  of  whatever  station,  who  had  a  wide  outlook 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  151 


upon  the  world,  and  who  had  imbibed  to  its  fullest  extent  the 
military  spirit  of  the  people  of  Ireland.  From  the  time  when 
he  returned  to  Ireland  after  a  lengthy  sojourn  on  the  Con- 
tinent and  in  the  United  States,  he  threw  himself  heart  and 
soul  into  the  national  movement.  From  the  first,  he  was 
intensely  interested  in  the  Sinn  Fein  movement,  and,  even 
when  that  movement  ceased  for  a  while  to  urge  a  vigorous 
campaign,  he  still  believed  it  an  admirable  method  of  freeing 
Ireland,  and  remained  one  of  the  closest  personal  friends  of 
Arthur  Griffith.  In  one  respect,  however,  The  O'Rahilly  was 
more  than  a  Sinn  Feiner,  as  the  Sinn  Feiners  were  known  in 
the  days  before  the  war.  The  O'Rahilly  never  wavered  in 
his  belief  that  the  only  way  in  which  Ireland  could  win  her 
freedom  was  with  the  sword.  While  the  Sinn  Fein  movement 
was  largely  pacific,  most  of  the  men  allied  with  it  shared  The 
O'Rahilly's  opinion,  although  they  did  not  all  take  an  active 
part  from  the  beginning  in  preparing  for  a  military  uprising. 
That  Arthur  Griffith  believed  physical  force  to  be  the  only 
means  whereby  the  ultimate  salvation  of  Ireland  could  be 
won  will  be  shown  later. 

The  O'Rahilly,  however,  was  not  only  a  believer  in  physical 
force;  he  was  an  advanced  thinker  along  these  lines,  and  was 
at  all  times  ready  to  consider  any  proposal  that  seemed  to 
possess  any  value  as  an  adjunct  to  the  arming  of  the  nation. 
In  1912  and  in  1913  he  and  the  writer  spent  many  hours  in 
discussing  the  possibility  of  establishing  an  aeroplane  corps 
in  Ireland,  the  intention  being  to  have  a  number  of  aero- 
planes, owned  by  individual  members  of  the  organization, 
and  to  train  men  in  their  use  so  that  they  would  be  ready 
when  needed.  We  discussed  the  matter  with  Tom  Clarke, 
Sean  MacDermott,  Buhner  Hobson,  Piaras  Beasley,  and  a 
number  of  others,  and  an  organization,  known  as  An  Cumann 
Eitel  (The  Irish  Flying  Club)  was  actually  started  in  the  fall 
of  1912,  but  had  unfortunately  to  be  dropped,  owing  to  the 
difficulty  of  securing  the  machines.  Later  events  tended  to 
demonstrate  that  a  corps  such  as  that  planned  would  have 
been  invaluable  during  the  rising. 


152   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


The  O'Rahilly  was  present  at  the  meeting  in  Wynn's 
Hotel,  Dublin,  when  the  Volunteer  movement  was  planned, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  active  in  the  organization  from  the 
very  start.  He  was  of  medium  height,  clean  cut,  and  with  a 
military  bearing.  He  was  indefatigable  in  training  the  men, 
and  was  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him,  for  he  never  wavered 
or  hesitated.  He  resisted  to  the  last  John  Redmond's  attempt 
to  capture  and  disband  the  Volunteers,  and  his  death  in  his 
Volunteer  uniform  of  green,  with  sword  and  revolver  in  hand, 
was  typical  of  the  man  and  was  the  only  death  he  would  have 
desired. 

Regarding  Padraic  Pearse,  the  first  President  of  the  Irish 
Republic,  many  pages  might  be  written.  He  was  a  man  who 
personified  in  himself  the  noblest  traditions  of  the  country  he 
loved  and  for  which  he  sacrificed  his  life.  Born  in  1880, 
Padraic  was  educated  at  the  Christian  Brothers'  School,  West- 
land  Row,  Dublin,  and  at  the  Royal  University.  At  the  age 
of  seventeen  he  founded  and  became  first  President  of  the 
New  Ireland  Literary  Society.  From  their  earliest  days  both 
he  and  his  brother,  William  James  Pearse,  were  ardent  stu- 
dents of  Irish  history  and  Irish  language,  and,  when  they  were 
both  mere  boys,  took  a  vow  that  they  would  work  and,  if 
need  be,  die  for  Ireland.  Shy,  earnest,  rather  pale  but  strik- 
ingly handsome,  Pearse  had  the  appearance  of  the  student 
and  the  scholar.  He  impressed  all  who  came  into  touch  with 
him  as  being  at  once  an  enthusiast  and  a  practical  man  of 
affairs.  As  a  teacher  of  a  language  class  under  the  Gaelic 
League  in  1899,  he  already  showed  that  he  had  imbibed  the 
very  soul  of  the  Gael.  He  was  full  of  enthusiasm  for  Irish 
linguistic  studies,  and  delved  deeply  into  Irish  folk-lore  and 
early  Irish  music  and  poetry. 

In  1901  Pearse  was  called  to  the  Irish  bar,  and  was  the 
recipient  of  many  congratulations.  He  then  set  to  work  to 
found  St.  Enda's  School  at  Rathfarnam,  County  Dublin.  St. 
Enda's  was  the  only  Irish  college  that  was  founded  on  a  con- 
ception of  all  that  was  best  in  Irish  life  and  tradition.  There 
were  other  Irish  colleges,  such  as  that  at  Ballingeary,  where 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  153 


the  Irish  language  was  taught;  but  St.  Enda's  was  a  college 
where  a  thorough  modern  education  was  provided  in  all  its 
branches,  and  where  the  spirit  of  the  Gael  was  predominant 
in  everything.  Had  Pearse  done  nothing  else  than  found 
St.  Enda's  and  thus  demonstrate  how  a  modern  system  of 
education  need  not  exclude  the  true  spirit  of  the  Gael,  he 
would  have  accomplished  a  work  deserving  of  the  gratitude 
of  every  man,  woman,  and  child  of  the  Irish  race.  Apart 
entirely  from  its  national  significance,  St.  Enda's  was  a  most 
important  contribution  to  the  science  of  pedagogy,  and  its 
importance  will  be  realized  and  conceded  later  when  men  turn 
away  from  destruction  to  peaceful  pursuits. 

Not  alone  was  Pearse  a  poet  with  the  truest  conception  of 
the  Gaelic  ideal;  he  also  wrote  a  number  of  remarkable 
miracle  or  morality  plays.  An  able  orator,  he  represented  the 
Gaelic  League  at  many  Welsh  and  Scottish  national  gather- 
ings. In  August,  1915,  on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  of 
O'Donovan  Rossa,  he  delivered  the  oration  at  the  grave  in 
Glasnevin,  where  his  impassioned  address  was  the  outstanding 
feature  of  the  ceremonies. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  man  himself  and  his  ideals 
could  be  found  than  in  the  article  which  he  wrote  and  pub- 
lished in  four  Irish  papers —  The  Spark,  Honesty,  The  Gael, 
and  The  Gaelic  Athlete  —  three  weeks  before  the  Rebellion. 
For  printing  this  article  these  papers  were  promptly  sup- 
pressed by  the  Government.  The  article  is  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  history  of  the  Irish  Rebellion,  since  it  gives  a  true 
picture  of  the  motives  of  its  leaders.    The  article  is  as  follows: 

Since  the  outbreak  of  the  European  war,  I  have  often  asked  myself, 
"Are  we  at  war  with  England?"  and  have  satisfied  myself  by  reply- 
ing in  the  affirmative.  On  deeper  reflection  I  must  say,  our  war 
with  that  country  is  only  a  war  of  words,  one  of  lip  and  feeling. 

What  are  the  signs  of  war,  in  the  purely  military  sense?  There 
are  none,  but  is  it  so  with  the  enemy?  Oh,  no;  with  her  it  is  war, 
and  real  war  towards  us.  Our  casualty  list  is  large  between  cap- 
tured, imprisoned,  and  deported.  By  captured  I  mean  those  whom 
she  has  deluded  and  seduced  into  her  ranks. 


154   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Where  are  the  successes  on  our  side  to  offset  such  losses?  Paltry, 
withal  the  enemy  in  our  midst  has  not  lost  a  single  man. 

We  all  declare,  and  justly  so,  that  until  Ireland  is  restored  to  her 
place  amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth,  come  what  may,  we  are  at 
war  with  England.  It  is  very  patriotic,  no  doubt,  and  truly  national, 
but  what  is  the  value  of  such  declarations  if  they  be  not  supported 
by  deeds? 

I  believe  that  the  time  has  come  for  a  strong  and  determined 
offensive  against  all  the  entrenchments  of  the  enemy  in  this  country. 
The  effect  of  such  an  offensive  will  be  far-reaching.  It  will  show 
our  enemies  that  we  are  not  conquered;  that  we  are  still  out  for  the 
liberty  of  one  small  nationality,  Ireland.  It  will  cause  an  upheaval 
at  home,  the  news  of  which  will  quickly  reach  our  captured  brethren 
abroad.  If  they  have  a  trace  of  patriotism  in  their  veins,  and  many 
of  them  have,  they  will  not  help  the  enemy  that  is  shooting  down 
their  kith  and  kin  at  home. 

In  short,  an  offensive  at  this  moment  may  be  the  deciding  factor 
in  this  war.  The  longer  we  delay,  the  better  it  will  be  for  our 
enemies.  They  want  no  disturbance  in  Ireland,  and  will  we  help  in 
their  desire? 

Defeat  in  Ireland  means  more  for  the  enemy  than  any  defeat  she 
may  sustain  in  Flanders  or  elsewhere.  The  only  consequence  to 
us  is  that  some  of  us  may  be  launched  into  eternity  quicker  and 
sooner  than  we  would  like.  But  who  are  we,  that  we  should  hesitate 
to  die  for  Ireland? 

Are  not  the  claims  of  Ireland  greater  on  us  than  any  personal 
ones?  Do  we  not  boast  of  our  loyalty  and  love  for  the  Dear  Dark 
Head?  Is  it  fear  that  deters  us  from  such  an  enterprise?  Away 
with  such  fears!    Cowards  die  many  times;  the  brave  die  only  once. 

It  is  admitted  that  nothing  but  a  revolution  can  now  save  the 
historic  Irish  nation  from  becoming  a  mere  appanage,  a  Crown 
Colony,  of  the  British  Empire.  We  do  not  desire  such  a  consum- 
mation of  the  Island  of  Saints  and  Scholars,  the  land  of  the  O'Neills 
and  the  O'Donnells,  the  land  for  which  the  countless  have  suffered 
and  died. 

We  call  ourselves  revolutionists;  we  glory  in  the  name;  we  speak 
with  pride  of  the  Dawn  of  the  Day.  Were  there  ever  such  revolu- 
tionists? We  want  the  revolution  to  start  us,  and  not  us  to  start  it. 
If  we  really  want  to  free  Ireland,  now  is  the  time  for  action.  Are 
we  afraid  to  start  up  like  men  and  bear  the  consequences,  or  is  all 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  155 


our  talk  mere  frothing  only  to  delude  our  enemies  as  well  as  our 
followers? 

If  we  want  the  revolution,  we  must  make  it,  and  we  must  realize 
that  such  cannot  be  accomplished  without  bloodshed.  We  want  war, 
for  war  justifies  the  removal  of  our  enemies  in  the  most  expeditious 
manner.  For  that  purpose  we  must  know  who  our  enemies  are, 
and  under  no  consideration  must  we  allow  them  to  interfere  with  the 
onward  march  of  the  Irish  nation.  Either  we  or  they  must  fall  in 
the  fight. 

Some  will  cry  out  in  horror  at  such  a  proposal.  On  what  do  they 
base  their  horror?  Is  it  blood-spilling?  Look  at  the  war  in  Flanders. 
What  blood  is  being  spilled  there  daily!  Do  these  deaths  awake  in 
such  people  a  shudder  of  horror?  No:  war  to  them  is  justifiable  in 
all  countries  except  in  Ireland.  We  are  at  war  with  England,  and 
it  is  necessary  that  we  should  fight  it  to  the  bitter  end. 

Look  at  the  war  in  Flanders  again.  What  are  the  motives  under- 
lying this  struggle?  Are  these  motives  just  and  noble?  Is  Ireland's 
struggle  with  England  more  legitimate  and  more  sacred?    Yes,  it  is. 

Our  sufferings  extend  over  centuries;  no  form  of  torture  and  perse- 
cution but  England  has  tried  on  us.  She  is  out  for  our  conquest, 
and  will  stop  at  nothing  to  effect  it.  There  is  no  hope  for  the  future 
welfare  of  an  independent  Irish  nation  but  in  separation. 

God,  in  His  wise  providence,  has  separated  us  by  the  seas,  but 
crafty,  unscrupulous  enemies  bind  us  to  that  execrable  government. 

If  we  remove  these  enemies,  will  separation  follow?  I  say  and 
believe  "yes."  These  enemies  are  the  connecting  links  with  Dublin 
Castle.  They  are  the  links  that  bind,  and  they  shall  remain  while 
England  holds  this  country.  If  we  want  to  break  the  connection 
with  England,  we  must  remove  these  links,  and  we  must  render 
government  by  England  impossible  in  this  country. 

Is  it  an  impossible  task?  Decidedly  not.  At  the  moment  the 
minions  of  the  government  in  Ireland  stand  trembling,  afraid  to 
disturb  the  people.  They  know  their  power  is  weak,  and  they  are 
fearful  lest  any  action  of  theirs  may  lose  them  their  government,  or 
at  least  may  have  an  untoward  effect  on  the  Irish  troops  fighting  for 
them  in  Flanders  and  elsewhere. 

I  fear  we  do  not  realize  our  present  strength  and  our  enemies* 
weakness.  Where  is  the  British  navy  that  we  were  told  ruled  the 
waves?  Recent  events  show  that  her  ruling  is  now  past.  As  for 
land  forces,  what  has  England  to  put  against  us?    She  needs  every 


156   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


available  man  to  meet  the  German  offensive.  Even  her  conscript 
army  will  be  needed.  She  may  send  some  of  them  to  Ireland,  but 
are  they  such  to  make  us  fear? 

We  are  fighting  for  freedom;  freedom  for  everyone:  they  are 
only  conscripts  fighting  against  their  will.  We  are  superior  to  them 
in  every  respect.  We  know  our  country,  and  by  a  simultaneous 
and  systematic  action  we  should  shock,  demoralize,  and  rout  them. 

Comrades,  everthing  favors  us.  Now  or  never  for  the  final 
onslaught.  The  shades  of  our  immortal  dead,  the  graves  of  the 
unavenged,  the  harrowing  cries  of  our  murdered  priests,  of  our 
violated  women,  of  the  coffinless  dead  who  are  whitening  the  Atlantic's 
broad  floor  —  all  rise  up  and  command  us  to  do  the  noble  deed,  and 
fight  the  last  fight  for  freedom. 

We  must  not  wait  till  the  war  is  over.  England  will  then  be  at 
peace,  and  will  be  free  to  send  her  reserves  against  us.  Will  we 
wait  to  fail,  or  will  we  fight  now  to  win?    Yours  is  the  choice. 

I  am  ready.  For  years  I  have  waited  and  prayed  for  this  day. 
We  have  the  most  glorious  opportunity  that  has  ever  presented  itself 
of  really  asserting  ourselves.  Such  an  opportunity  may  never  come 
again.  We  have  Ireland's  liberty  in  our  hands.  Will  we  be  free- 
men, or  are  we  content  to  remain  as  slaves  and  idly  watch  the  final 
extermination  of  the  Gael? 

GOMERAGH. 

At  another  time  he  wrote,  —  and  the  words  bear  a  pro- 
phetic air  to-day,  —  referring  to  the  same  aspect  of  the  case : 

We  are  older  than  England  and  we  are  stronger  than  England. 
In  every  generation  we  have  renewed  the  struggle,  and  so  it  shall 
be  unto  the  end.  When  England  thinks  she  has  trampled  out 
our  battle  in  blood,  some  brave  man  rises  and  rallies  us  again*, 
when  England  thinks  she  has  purchased  us  with  a  bribe,  some  good 
man  redeems  us  by  a  sacrifice. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


The  Men  of  the  People 

NO  two  men  could  have  presented  a  stranger  contrast 
than  did  Thomas  MacDonagh  and  James  Connolly. 
Both  were  representative  of  a  distinct  class  in  the 
nation,  and  yet  both  representative  of  the  people.  Both  were 
democrats  of  the  purest  type,  yet  seeking  the  emancipation 
of  their  fellow-men  in  different  ways.  Both  were  educators; 
both  were  men  of  literary  gifts,  as  indeed  were  all  the  leaders 
of  the  rebellion;  both  were  firm  believers  in  the  claims  of  the 
"bottom  dog,"  and  yet  each  trod  a  separate  path,  which,  in 
the  end,  brought  them  to  a  common  understanding,  and  to  the 
consummation  of  their  hopes  and  ideals  in  a  common  sacrifice. 

Thomas  MacDonagh,  a  native  of  Cloughjordan  in  Tippe- 
rary,  was  in  appearance  a  typical  Irishman  —  tall  and  straight, 
clean-cut  and  good-looking,  with  short  curly  hair,  a  fine  head, 
and  a  clear  bright  eye  that  looked  as  straight  into  the  eye  of 
his  friends  as  later  into  the  rifles  of  the  shooting  squad.  He 
had  an  air  of  culture,  and  that  fresh  complexion  that  comes 
from  a  life  spent  in  the  open  air  amidst  the  fields  and  moun- 
tains of  Ireland.  Though  he  had  a  tendency  to  shyness,  his 
whole  bearing  was  one  of  good  nature  and  friendliness.  No 
one  who  met  him  could  ever  doubt  his  sincerity,  even  though 
they  did  not  agree  with  his  views. 

He  was  one  of  those  bright  spirits  whose  imagination  loved 
to  wander  in  the  far-off  Gaelic  past  —  the  Gaelic  twilight,  as 
some  called  it.  But,  while  he  wandered  in  fancy  along  the 
lanes  and  among  the  hills  of  Ireland  in  the  Golden  Age, 
drinking  in  the  wonder  and  delight  of  the  magic  stories  of 
long  ago,  he  was  ever  looking  into  the  future  to  that  day  when 
Ireland  would  be  again  the  free  and  happy  land  he  saw  in 
his  dreams.    His  studies  in  Gaelic  literature  and  music  were 


158   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


to  him  full  of  practical  purpose,  for  they  furthered  the  one 
grand  object  of  his  life  —  the  making  of  Ireland  a  Nation. 

As  Padraic  Pearse's  lieutenant  at  St.  Enda's  School,  he 
assisted  in  the  work  of  teaching  the  boys  of  Ireland  the  true 
meaning  of  Irish  nationality.  A  fluent  Gaelic  speaker  and  a 
deep  student  of  the  language,  he  did  wonderful  work  at  the 
college,  and  deserves  no  inconsiderable  share  of  the  credit  for 
the  success  with  which  the  college  accomplished  the  task 
set  it  by  its  founder.  He  was  heart  and  soul  in  his  work, 
and  there  developed  between  himself  and  his  pupils  a  friend- 
ship that  far  exceeded  the  respect  usually  inspired  by  the 
teacher.  Pie  entered  into  the  daily  lives  of  the  boys;  he  was 
their  comrade  and  friend;  his  philosophy  was  their  philosophy, 
and  his  ambitions  were  theirs. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  the  boy  in  Thomas,  even  after 
he  had  shouldered  the  responsibilities  of  parenthood.  His 
affection  was  lavished  upon  his  wife  and  family.  With  his 
wife,  his  little  son  and  daughter,  his  class  and  his  literary 
work,  all  of  which  engaged  his  enthusiasm  and  his  affections, 
one  would  have  imagined  that  he  had  little  time  for  anything 
else.  Yet,  so  big  was  the  heart  of  the  man,  he  was  still  able 
to  love  something  greater  and  bigger  than  all  these,  something 
for  the  love  of  which  he  eventually  gave  up  his  class,  his 
work,  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  his  little  boy  Don  —  a 
beautiful,  sweet-faced  child  who  had  twined  himself  around 
the  innermost  chords  of  his  father's  heart.  MacDonagh  left 
all  these  cheerfully  and  smilingly  and  went  out  to  fight  and 
die  for  Ireland. 

When  MacDonagh  joined  the  Irish  Volunteers,  he  threw 
into  the  work  that  same  wonderful  enthusiasm  that  dis- 
tinguished everything  he  did.  About  this  time  he  surren- 
dered the  editorship  of  The  Irish  Review,  a  monthly  magazine 
that  expressed  the  thoughts  of  the  leading  poets,  writers,  and 
thinkers  in  the  Irish-Ireland  movement.  He  was  thus  enabled 
to  devote  a  little  more  time  to  the  Volunteers,  and  there 
were  few  more  regular  at  the  drills  than  he.  He  saw  far 
ahead  to  the  ultimate  goal  of  the  movement,  but  did  not 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  159 


indulge  in  any  false  hopes  or  blind  himself  as  to  the  desperate 
nature  of  the  adventure.  From  the  moment  that  he  donned 
the  uniform  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  he  knew  he  had  started  on 
a  line  of  action  that  would  certainly  imperil  his  life.  He 
knew,  also,  when  he  signed  the  Proclamation  of  the  Irish 
Republic,  that  his  life  was  likely  to  pay  the  forfeit,  yet  he 
never  wavered. 

Wih  regard  to  his  literary  work,  only  a  passing  reference 
to  it  is  necessary  here.  Books  will  be  published  later  that 
will  estimate  his  poems  and  his  prose  works  at  their  true 
value.  In  all,  he  wrote  and  published  five  little  books  of 
poems,  the  most  noteworthy  being  "Through  the  Ivory 
Gate,"  "April  and  May,"  "The  Golden  Joy"  and  "Lyrical 
Poems."  A  posthumous  work  on  Irish  literature  has  recently 
appeared.  In  addition,  many  poems,  scattered  though  Irish 
publications,  have  yet  to  be  collected.  One  fact  deserves 
mention  regarding  his  inscriptions  of  the  volumes  which  he 
issued.  His  earlier  books  were  inscribed  with  his  name 
spelled  "M'Donagh,"  while  in  the  last  two  he  spelled  his 
name  "MacDonagh"  —  this  fact,  in  itself,  showing  a  devel- 
opment in  his  study  of  the  Irish  language  and  Irish  customs. 

While  in  nobility  of  ideals  and  self-sacrificing  patriotism, 
no  one  of  the  revolutionary  leaders  yields  place  to  another,  it 
is  most  interesting  to  notice  how  clearly  the  individuality  of 
each  is  revealed  in  the  manner  in  which  he  gives  expression  to 
the  sentiments  held  in  common  by  all.  Pearse's  passionate 
devotion  finds  vent  in  an  outburst  of  fiery  eloquence,  as  he 
calls  for  the  overthrow  of  the  oppressor  of  his  country. 
MacDonagh  immolates  himself  on  the  altar  of  patriotism  in  a 
poem,  the  first  two  verses  of  which  reveal  the  gentleness  and 
diffidence  characteristic  of  the  man,  while  the  third  pro- 
claims his  conviction  of  the  high  justice  and  eventual  success 
of  a  cause  which  ennobles  all  who  espouse  it.  The  poem  is 
entitled : 


160   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


TO  A  POET  CAPTAIN 

His  songs  were  a  little  phrase 

Of  eternal  song, 
Drowned  in  the  harping  of  lays 

More  loud  and  long. 

His  deeds  were  a  single  word, 

Called  out  alone 
In  a  night  when  no  echo  stirred  to  laughter, 

To  laughter  or  moan. 

But  his  songs  new  souls  shall  thrill, 

The  loud  harps  dumb, 
And  his  deeds  the  echoes  fill 

When  the  dawn  is  come. 

In  almost  direct  contrast  to  MacDonagh  was  James  Thomas 
Connolly,  a  native  of  Cork,  the  man  who  was  chosen  to  com- 
mand the  Dublin  army  of  the  Republicans.  He  was  of  heavy 
build,  rather  thick-set,  with  none  of  the  refined  appearance 
of  MacDonagh  and  little,  if  any,  of  his  poetic  temperament, 
although  he  also  indulged  at  times  in  versification.  Rather 
full  in  the  face,  with  a  complexion  that  spoke  of  years  passed 
in  the  open  air,  Connolly  was  easily  identifiable  as  a  leader  of 
men  who  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow.  While 
affable  to  all  for  whom  he  had  a  liking,  he  was  a  man  of 
much  reserve,  slow  to  make  friends  and  slower  still  to  part 
with  them. 

The  writer  came  into  intimate  touch  with  Connolly  during 
the  general  strike  in  Dublin  during  the  latter  half  of  1913. 
This  was  a  period  of  strife  and  stress  in  the  city,  when  civil 
war  was  in  the  air  and  deadly  riots  were  matters  of  weekly 
occurrence.  When  Jim  Larkin,  the  strike  organizer,  was  sent 
to  jail  for  a  speech  he  had  delivered,  Connolly  took  command 
at  Liberty  Hall,  the  headquarters  of  the  Irish  Transport 
Workers'  Union,  whose  members  were  on  strike.  While  lack- 
ing the  captivating  and  compelling  personality  of  Larkin, 
Connolly  possessed  a  diplomacy  and  an  intellect  that  placed 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  161 


him  far  above  Larkin.  After  Connolly  assumed  the  direction 
of  affairs,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  capitalists  had  to 
deal  with  a  man  whom  they  could  not  intimidate  or  cajole. 
We  do  not  mean  that  these  methods  succeeded  with  Larkin, 
but  that  Connolly  was  able  to  meet  the  employers  and  beat 
them  at  their  own  game,  whereas  Larkin  combatted  them 
with  a  brutal  directness.  It  was  very  freely  alleged  that 
Larkin  had  been  hired  by  English  capitalists  for  the  purpose 
of  crippling  Irish  industry,  and  his  manner  of  action  and  of 
speech  sometimes  lent  a  semblance  of  color  to  the  slander. 
No  such  statements  were  ever  circulated  regarding  Connolly, 
whose  record  as  an  Irishman  placed  him  above  suspicion. 

For  some  time  following  the  formation  of  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers, Connolly  and  the  entire  labor  organization  kept  care- 
fully aloof.  In  the  columns  of  The  Irish  Worker,  edited  by 
Connolly,  there  were  frequent  attacks  on  the  Irish  Volunteers, 
and  none  more  bitter  and  scathing  than  those  which  appeared 
after  the  demands  of  John  Redmond  were  acceded  to.  Con- 
nolly was  doubtful  as  to  whether  the  Volunteer  movement 
held  a  promise  of  good  for  the  working  class  or  whether  its 
policy  was  to  be  pursued  along  the  usual  lines  of  British 
political  movements,  which  ignored  the  claims  of  the  laboring 
classes.  For  a  long  period,  therefore,  Connolly  was  very  cau- 
tious and  noncommittal,  contenting  himself  with  the  assertion 
that  the  emancipation  of  Ireland  would  never  be  accomplished 
without  the  aid  of  the  working  men  and  women,  and  that, 
until  that  fact  was  officially  recognized,  he  himself  and  his 
Citizen  Army  would  keep  aloof  from  the  Volunteers.  That 
the  proper  assurances  were  forthcoming  before  the  Revolution, 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  was  appointed  to  the  chief 
military  command  in  Dublin. 

Connolly,  like  the  other  leaders  of  the  Volunteers,  did  more 
than  play  at  being  a  soldier.  He  spent  much  of  his  time 
studying  military  science,  and  his  appointment  to  the  Dublin 
Command  was  not  based  on  sentiment,  but  on  the  knowledge 
he  possessed.  In  his  travels  in  the  United  States  and  Europe 
he  had  paid  close  attention  to  the  military  systems  in  opera- 


162   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


tion,  and  he  possessed  a  mind  admirably  qualified  to  apply  the 
knowledge  he  had  thus  acquired.  He  was  nothing  if  not 
thorough,  and  he  never  wasted  time  in  the  study  of  anything 
that  he  did  not  intend  to  apply  to  a  practical  purpose.  His 
military  studies  had  been  made  primarily  for  the  purpose  of 
applying  them,  at  some  time  in  the  future,  to  a  renewal  of 
the  struggle  for  Irish  Independence.  This  was  the  beginning 
of  the  Citizen  Army,  which,  he  hoped,  would  be  the  nucleus 
of  an  armed  and  drilled  army  of  the  entire  working  class. 

Connolly  wrote  many  articles  and  a  number  of  books. 
His  earliest  articles,  on  Socialism  and  Nationality,  appeared 
in  the  Shan  Van  Vocht  (The  Shan,  as  it  was  affectionately 
called)  in  1895,  1897,  and  1898.  This  paper  was  edited  by 
Alice  Milligan  and  Anna  Johnson  (better  known  by  her  pen- 
name  of  Ethna  Carbery).  Connolly's  articles  in  The  Shan 
created  wide  discussion,  owing,  probably,  to  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  first  time  an  Irish  Socialist  had  openly  maintained 
that  Socialism  was  not  only  not  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of 
nationality,  but  was  an  integral  part  of  it. 

Connolly's  ablest  work  was  published  in  1910.  It  was 
entitled  "Labor  in  Irish  History,"  and  is  recognized  as  a 
standard  work  on  the  subject. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


The  Pen  and  the  Sword 

OF  the  signers  of  the  Proclamation  there  were  two 
others  also  differing  in  many  ways,  who  yet  had  the 
same  vision.  Eamonn  Ceannt  was  born  in  Galway 
in  1882.  Tall  and  dark,  slimly  built  but  muscular,  he  was  a 
young  and  vigorous  Gael  at  the  time  when  he  affixed  his 
signature  to  the  Irish  Declaration  of  Independence.  Quiet 
in  his  manner  and  unassuming,  his  modesty  of  speech  and 
manner  made  him  slow  in  winning  friends,  but  those  whom 
he  did  number  among  his  friends  found  him  not  only  a 
delightful  companion,  but  one  who  inspired  unbounded 
confidence.  He  was  of  a  philosophical  turn  of  mind,  and  his 
vast  reading  in  Irish,  French,  and  English  literature  enabled 
him  to  speak  with  authority  on  a  variety  of  subjects  in  a 
manner  at  once  instructive  and  entertaining.  He  was  a 
lover  of  poetry,  a  speaker  of  Gaelic,  and  thoroughly  conver- 
sant with  the  history,  literature,  and  traditions  of  his  native 
land. 

His  hobby  was  gardening.  He  was  a  lover  of  flowers  and 
plants  and  all  things^  green  and  young,  and  contributed 
numerous  articles  on  gardening  to  Irish  newspapers.  He 
wrote  on  the  subject  in  a  most  interesting  manner,  and  no 
article  of  his  failed  in  one  or  more  points  of  special  interest 
to  the  people  of  Ireland.  He  wrote  much  also  on  the  political 
situation  of  the  day,  and  not  a  little  concerning  the  past 
history  of  Ireland.  He  also  contributed  a  few  poems  to  vari- 
ous publications,  but  these  did  not  possess  any  outstanding 
merit. 

Ceannt  was  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  of  the 
Sinn  Fein  policy  when  it  was  first  promulgated,  and  his 
enthusiasm  and  learning  were  valuable  adjuncts  to  the  cause. 


104   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


He  assisted  in  the  administrative  end  of  the  campaign,  and 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  success  which  marked 
the  early  days  of  the  new  movement.  With  the  starting  of 
the  daily  Sinn  Fein  newspaper,  Ceannt  threw  himself  into  the 
work  with  greater  energy  than  before.  When,  during  the 
period  of  quiescence,  the  new  headquarters  were  opened  in 
Harcourt  Street,  he  spent  much  of  his  time  there,  assisting 
in  the  work  of  keeping  the  organization  alive.  He  arranged 
courses  of  lectures  and  delivered  lectures  himself,  never  losing 
his  enthusiasm  or  his  belief  in  the  eventual  success  of  the 
policy,  which,  he  declared,  was  based  on  the  dearest  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  the  race. 

After  the  formation  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  he  was  one  of 
the  first  to  take  up  the  work  of  drilling  a  company,  and, 
during  the  period  between  the  outbreak  of  the  European  War 
and  the  Rebellion,  he  worked  indefatigably  as  an  officer  and 
organizer.  His  work  earned  for  him  the  place  of  honor  he 
occupied  on  the  Proclamation  and  later  in  front  of  the  firing 
squad. 

Of  similar  type  in  many  respects  was  Joseph  Mary  Plunkett, 
born  in  1892.  He  was  a  man  who  made  no  false  display 
either  of  his  opinions  or  his  genius,  preferring  to  leave  his 
deeds  and  his  work  to  speak  for  him.  He  has  left  behind  at 
least  one  volume  of  imperishable  verse,  and,  while  it  is  some- 
times dangerous  to  consider  the  work  of  a  poet  as  the  expres- 
sion of  his  personal  views,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
poems  in  this  volume  are  the  utterance  of  Plunkett's  inmost 
thoughts  and  the  frank  outpouring  of  his  soul.  He  wrote 
indeed,  not  for  the  sake  of  writing,  but  to  express  the  hopes 
and  the  ambitions  that  possessed  him.  Plunkett  was  also 
one  of  the  most  earnest  workers  for  the  Volunteers.  A  firm 
believer  in  the  doctrine  of  physical  force,  he  instinctively 
distrusted  those  who  spoke  of  compromise  or  who  were 
content  with  less  than  the  absolute  freeing  of  Ireland  from  all 
foreign  interference.  He  was  also  thoroughly  conversant  with 
all  things  Irish  and  a  keen  student  of  military  science. 

His  volume  of  poems,  "The  Circle  and  the  Sword,"  pub- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  165 


lished  in  1911  and  dedicated  to  Thomas  MacDonagh,  contains 
much  of  the  mysticism  peculiar  to  old  Gaelic  poetry.  Al- 
though his  style  was  merely  in  the  formative  stage,  it  can 
scarcely  be  doubted  that,  had  he  lived,  his  work  would  have 
belonged  to  the  truly  distinctive  utterances  of  our  generation. 
It  has  been  already  noticed  how  these  young  poets,  who  gave 
up  their  all  that  Ireland  might  resume  her  place  among  the 
other  nations  of  the  earth,  reveal  in  their  writings  a  premo- 
nition of  their  eventual  fate.  So  it  was  with  Plunkett.  The 
thoughts,  which  he  puts  into  words  in  "1867,"  are  unmis- 
takable in  their  significance: 

All  our  best  ye  have  branded, 
When  the  people  were  choosing  them; 
When  'twas  Death  they  demanded, 
Ye  laughed.    Ye  were  losing  them. 
But  the  blood  that  ye  spilt  in  the  night 
Crieth  loudly  to  God, 

And  their  name  hath  the  strength  and  the  might 
Of  a  sword  for  the  sod. 

In  the  days  of  our  doom  and  our  dread 

Ye  were  cruel  and  callous, 

Grim  Death  with  our  fighters  ye  fed 

Through  the  jaws  of  the  gallows; 

But  a  blasting  and  blight  was  the  fee 

For  which  ye  had  bartered  them, 

And  we  smite  with  the  sword  that  from  ye 

We  had  gained  when  ye  martyred  them. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


Fighting  Men  and  Heroes 

POSSIBLY  the  most  picturesque  of  the  other  prominent 
figures  of  the  Revolution  was  Major  McBride,  a  man 
who  had  already  shown  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
freedom.  During  the  Boer  war  he  led  an  Irish  Brigade  on 
the  side  of  the  Boer  farmers,  who  were  fighting  the  fight  that 
the  Irish  had  waged  for  centuries  and  against  the  same  tyrant 
that  was  ever  ready  to  plant  her  iron  heel  upon  the  aspirations 
of  both  for  freedom.  Even  prior  to  this  he  had  worked  in 
Ireland  and  in  the  United  States  for  the  freedom  of  Ireland, 
and  was  able  by  his  wide  knowledge  of  military  science  to 
render  valuable  assistance  to  the  men  in  the  movement  when 
the  time  came  for  the  drilling  and  the  arming  of  the  Volun- 
teers. 

A  strenuous  advocate  of  armed  rebellion,  McBride  would 
listen  with  amused  indifference  to  any  suggestion  that  the 
freedom  of  the  country,  even  in  a  legislative  sense,  could  be 
won  by  agitation  in  the  British  House  of  Commons.  He 
threw  over  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party  in  1895,  believing 
that  it  was  even  then  corrupted  by  British  influence  and 
British  gold,  and  never  entertained  the  slightest  hope  that 
even  the  emaciated  Home  Rule  Bill  would  be  put  into  opera- 
tion. All  his  thoughts  were  centered  on  the  raising  of  an 
army  that  would  drive  the  British  out  of  the  country,  and 
he  never  wavered  in  his  steadfast  belief  that  this  would 
eventually  be  accomplished  —  if  not  in  this  century,  in  the 
next.  Of  middle  age,  a  little  over  medium  height,  and  rather 
stoutly  built,  McBride  presented  an  entire  contrast  to  all  the 
other  leaders,  except  perhaps  Connolly.  He  did  not  possess 
quite  the  same  keen  intellectual  perception  of  the  Gaelic  ideal 
as  did  the  others,  but  there  was  no  question  as  to  his  knowl- 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  167 


edge  of  Irish  history  and  his  thorough  insight  into  every 
angle  of  the  political  situation.  He  loved  his  country,  and 
his  one  desire  was  to  be  present  at  the  striking  of  the  final 
blow  for  her  freedom. 

Of  a  very  different  type  was  Michael  O'Hanrahan,  a  native 
of  New  Ross  in  Wexford.  In  losing  O'Hanrahan,  Ireland  lost 
an  author  who  would  have  given  her  youth  many  volumes  of 
inspired  romance  if  he  had  lived.  He  was  of  a  retiring 
disposition,  and  spent  a  great  deal  of  his  time  at  home, 
reading  far  into  the  night  books  of  Irish  verse  and  Irish  his- 
tory, romances  of  the  Golden  Age,  and  tales  of  the  myths 
and  legends  of  Eirinn.  While  copy  reader  in  the  office  of  a 
Dublin  newspaper,  O'Hanrahan  became  possessed  of  an 
ambition  to  write.  He  plunged  into  a  course  of  study  that 
developed  his  faculties  and  rapidly  advanced  him  to  the  rank 
of  a  man  of  letters.  From  Arthur  Griffith,  the  Editor  of 
Sinn  Fein,  he  received  valuable  assistance.  For  a  time  he 
contributed  an  article  each  week  to  Sinn  Fein  (under  the 
pen-name  of  "Martin"),  in  which  he  related  the  political 
gossip  of  the  week  in  a  humorous,  conversational  style. 
These  articles  showed  a  steady  improvement  in  style  and 
construction,  and  it  was  soon  seen  that  the  young  writer  had 
a  bright  future  before  him. 

It  was  O'Hanrahan's  dearest  ambition  at  this  time  to  write 
a  book,  and  he  pondered  seriously  as  to  the  subject  he  should 
select.  Eventually,  in  1914,  he  published  an  Irish  historical 
romance  entitled  "A  Swordsman  of  the  Brigade,"  which  met 
with  a  most  flattering  reception.  As  its  name  implies,  it  is  a 
tale  of  the  Wild  Geese,  and  is  a  brilliant  contribution  to 
modern  Irish  fiction. 

O'Hanrahan  was  one  of  the  first  to  join  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers. At  the  inaugural  meeting  in  the  Rotunda  in  1913  he 
was  one  of  the  stewards  appointed  to  sign  up  recruits.  He 
gave  up  a  great  deal  of  his  literary  work  to  drill  and  learn  the 
art  of  soldiering.  With  the  passing  of  time  his  enthusiasm 
became  greater,  and,  as  his  proficiency  increased,  he  was 
promoted  from  one  rank  to  another,  until  he  had  gained  a 


168   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


prominence  that  made  him  a  marked  man.  At  the  time  of 
the  rising  he  was  treasurer  of  the  Arms'  Fund  and  the  most 
trusted  man  in  the  organization. 

Still  another  who  rendered  valuable  assistance  in  the  prepa- 
rations for  the  rebellion  was  William  Pearse.  Like  his 
brother,  he  was  born  in  Dublin  of  an  English  father  and  an 
Irish  mother,  and  it  is  to  their  mother  that  the  boys  owed 
that  devotion  for  Ireland  which  characterized  their  lives. 
William  Pearse  was  the  Art  Master  at  St.  Enda's  School. 
He  had  inherited  the  genius  of  his  father,  who  was  a  well- 
known  sculptor,  but  his  art  differed  from  his  father's  in  the 
new  inspiration  which  he  brought  to  it  and  which  rendered 
it  distinctive.  There  was  a  strong  suggestion  of  the  Gaelic 
in  all  his  sculpture,  even  in  those  subjects  which  were  not 
themselves  Irish.  His  work  soon  began  to  attract  attention 
at  the  various  exhibitions  where  it  was  placed  on  view,  and 
particularly  at  the  Royal  Hibernian  Academy  in  Dublin. 
One  of  his  finest  works  was  his  "Mater  Dolorosa,"  which 
was  given  the  place  of  honor  in  the  Mortuary  Chapel  in  St. 
Andrew's  Church,  Westland  Row,  Dublin.  He  was  already 
winning  recognition  in  the  critical  art  circles  of  Europe,  when 
he  sacrificed  his  art  to  serve  his  country. 

Like  his  brother,  William  was  Irish  of  the  Irish.  He  joined 
the  Volunteers  at  the  same  time  as  his  brother,  and  was  even 
more  enthusiastic  in  his  attendance  at  drills  and  his  study  of 
military  science.  He  spent  hours  in  the  drill  halls,  teaching 
and  inspiring  the  men,  and  he  was  loved  by  all  with  whom  he 
came  into  contact.  His  youthful  energy  was  tremendous,  and 
he  seemed  able  to  accomplish  as  much  work  as  any  other  two 
men.  A  quiet  and  unassuming  youth,  he  had  all  the  reserve 
and  all  the  genial  qualities  that  made  his  brother  loved  and 
trusted  and  respected  by  his  comrades. 

Of  the  others,  Daly  and  Colbert  and  Heuston  and  Mallon, 
much  the  same  is  to  be  said.  They  were  young  men  who 
had,  by  their  devotion  to  their  work,  risen  to  posts  of  responsi- 
bility in  the  Volunteers.  They  were  all  men  of  sincerity  and 
purity  of  motive  —  men  whom  any  nation  might  be  proud  to 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  169 


call  her  sons.  In  almost  every  instance  they  had  just 
attained  the  full  bloom  of  manhood,  and  were  men  who  would 
certainly  have  won  eminence  in  their  various  callings,  had 
they  not  been  singled  out  for  a  nobler  fate.  It  is  extremely 
difficult  to  speak  of  these  men  in  a  calmly  critical  manner, 
such  as  is  expected  of  a  writer  who  endeavors  to  depict  the 
history  of  any  set  period.  It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  friends 
and  companions  as  so  many  pawns  on  a  chessboard,  when  one's 
knowledge  of  the  motives  that  moved  them  to  action  is 
personal  and  direct.  Of  the  stuff  that  heroes  are  made  of, 
with  souls  set  above  the  earth  and  the  things  of  the  earth, 
they  followed  the  path  of  duty  to  its  last  demand,  intent  only 
on  relighting  the  torch  of  liberty  which  England  had  ex- 
tinguished in  their  land. 

In  their  everyday  actions  they  gave  little  evidence  of 
possessing  the  germs  of  heroism.  They  were  all  quiet  men, 
little  given  to  talk  or  display.  They  knew  there  were  thou- 
sands who  were  as  ready  as  they  to  make  the  supreme  sacrifice 
when  it  was  demanded.  But  to  them  fell  the  lot  of  leading 
the  van,  of  showing  the  way  to  their  followers,  and  of  paying 
the  extreme  penalty  always  exacted  from  patriots  in  the 
event  of  defeat.  They  knew,  as  did  every  man  in  the  Volun- 
teers, that  they  were  running  the  risk  of  imprisonment  or 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  defender  of  the  liberties  of  small 
nations,  even  if  they  survived  the  fight. 

All  of  them  were  workers  —  whether  in  the  college,  the 
office,  or  the  store.  When  their  day's  work  was  done,  they 
would  repair  to  the  drill  hall  or  to  the  place  of  meeting,  and 
would  there  take  their  places  as  drill  masters,  officers,  or 
wherever  their  duty  called  them.  They  were  not  men  who 
had  been  selected  to  lead  a  nation,  but  men  who  stepped  into 
the  line  when  the  call  came  for  action.  Some  of  them  were 
scarcely  known  outside  their  immediate  circle  of  acquaintance, 
yet  they  were  marked  men,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  had 
always  taken  their  stand  on  the  one  and  only  platform 
possible  for  an  Irish  Nationalist  —  absolute  and  complete 
independence  for  Ireland.    The  mere  fact  that  they  had  not 


170   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


been  prominent  in  the  political  arena  is  significant.  They 
were  men  of  the  people  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Plain, 
straightforward,  and  serious,  they  were  not  swayed  either  by 
the  fanaticism  of  the  moment  nor  by  the  pressure  of  precedent. 
They  took  their  stand  where  they  did  because  they  believed 
it  was  the  only  honorable  thing  that  an  Irishman  could  do 
under  the  circumstances.  They  had  joined  the  Volunteers 
owing  to  the  conviction  that  in  a  national  military  organiza- 
tion lay  Ireland's  only  chance  to  escape  betrayal  at  the  hands 
of  her  perjured  representatives  and  later  the  danger  of  being 
engulfed  in  a  war  in  which  she  had  no  interest.  These  men 
were  not  to  be  led  astray  by  the  sleek  promises  of  a  Govern- 
ment that  had  ever  mocked  at  the  dearest  hopes  of  the  Irish 
people.  They  were  ready  to  accept  any  genuine  measure  of 
Home  Rule  as  a  foundation  for  the  regaining  of  Ireland's 
freedom,  but  they  refused  to  barter  their  nationality  for  the 
promise  of  a  mess  of  pottage. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


The  Women  of  the  Nation 

IN  dealing  with  the  work  of  the  women  of  the  Revolution, 
pride  of  place  must  necessarily  be  given  to  the  Countess 
Markievicz.  A  daughter  of  Lady  Gore-Booth  of  Lisa- 
dell,  County  Sligo,  Constance  Gore-Booth  was  reared  in  an 
atmosphere  peculiarly  hostile  to  Irish  nationality.  The  story 
is  told  that  her  mother,  with  a  strange  hatred  of  all  things 
Irish,  had  all  the  clocks  in  the  Manor  House  set  to  English 
time.  Constance  later  escaped  from  this  stultifying  atmos- 
phere, when,  developing  a  talent  for  painting,  she  went  to 
Paris  to  study  art.  Here  she  met  and  married,  in  1900, 
Count  Casimir  Markievicz.  After  her  marriage  she  returned 
to  Ireland,  and  finally  settled  down  with  her  husband  in 
Dublin.  Despite  all  the  attractions  of  Castle  society,  she 
felt  herself  irresistibly  drawn  into  another  group,  whose  hall- 
mark was  intellect,  whose  blue  blood  was  that  of  the  Gael, 
and  whose  magic  circle  was  bound  around  with  youth  and 
talent  and  love  and  hope  for  Ireland  a  Nation. 

For  some  years  she  was  one  of  the  most  picturesque  figures 
in  the  national  life  of  Dublin,  and  gave  unstintingly  of  her 
time,  her  sympathies,  and  her  means  to  the  cause.  With 
Bulmer  Hobson  she  founded,  in  1909,  the  Irish  Boy  Scouts 
(Fianna  na  hEirinn),  for  she  believed  that,  the  younger  a 
boy  was  when  he  dedicated  his  life  to  Ireland,  the  more  he 
would  have  to  give  her,  and  that  in  the  hearts  and  hands  of 
her  youth  lay  the  destinies  of  Eirinn. 

The  boys  worshiped  her,  and  she  spent  night  after  night  in 
the  hall  in  Camden  steet,  helping  to  drill  them,  holding  up 
to  them  as  patterns  the  mighty  Fianna  of  old  with  their  boy 
hero,  Fionn  MacCumhal  —  Fionn  of  the  perfect  soul  and  the 
consummate  wisdom,  of  whose  glowing  beauty  Oisin  sang. 


172   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Their  boyish  hearts  stirred  by  the  hero  tales,  they  responded 
gladly  to  the  teaching  and  the  training  of  the  enthusiastic 
and  dashing  woman,  who  taught  them  that  they  must  be 
like  the  Fianna,  strong  of  limb  and  fleet  of  foot,  cultured  and 
chivalrous,  keenly  intellectual  and  ever  noble  in  principle. 
She  declared  to  them  on  one  occasion,  "Remember,  boys, 
no  Fian  ever  turned  his  back  on  his  foes,  no  Fian  ever  told 
a  lie." 

When  they  camped  out  in  the  misty  Dublin  mountains 
above  the  "blue  of  Dublin  Bay,"  she  too  was  there.  She 
accompanied  them  on  their  marches;  and  many  a  Sunday 
morning,  when  the  crowds  were  on  their  homeward  way  from 
the  last  Mass  along  the  Phibsboro  Road  and  streams  of 
visitors  flowed  towards  Glasnevin,  the  wild  music  of  Irish 
war  pipes  would  suddenly  fill  the  air,  and  around  Doyle's 
Corner,  with  green,  white,  and  orange  banners  flying,  would 
sweep  the  Fianna  na  hEirinn,  clad  in  saffron  kilts.  A  tall, 
straight,  slender  woman,  with  a  soft  felt  hat  strapped  firmly 
under  her  chin  and  bright  green  'kerchief  knotted  around  her 
neck,  might  be  seen  marching  proudly  at  their  head.  A 
momentary  pause,  a  flash  of  something  white,  and  on  the 
first  lamp-post  would  appear  an  anti-recruiting  bill,  placed 
there  by  a  practiced  hand  —  the  hand  of  Countess  Markievicz. 
Then  off  they  would  go  again,  the  pipes  shrieking  "The 
Dawning  of  the  Day." 

In  1913,  during  the  months  of  the  Dublin  strikes,  she 
played  an  important  part  in  alleviating  distress  in  the  city. 
She  attended  personally  to  the  cooking  and  the  preparation 
of  the  meals  given  out  at  Liberty  Hall  to  the  strikers  and 
their  families.  Many  a  morning,  long  before  eight  o'clock,  a 
figure  on  a  bicycle  would  sweep  swiftly  around  the  old  Houses 
of  Parliament,  down  over  O'Connell  Bridge,  and  along  Eden 
Quay  to  Liberty  Hall.  It  was  the  Countess  hurrying  to  get 
breakfast  for  her  comrades,  the  working  men  of  Dublin. 

One  Friday  afternoon  in  August,  when  the  excitement  was 
at  its  height,  Jim  Larkin  announced  that  on  the  following 
Sunday,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  he  would  address  a 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  173 


public  meeting  in  O'Connell  Street.  On  Saturday  morning 
the  meeting  was  proclaimed,  and  a  warrant  issued  for  the 
arrest  of  Larkin.  But  Jim  Larkin  was  nowhere  to  be  found; 
he  had  disappeared.  A  strange  undercurrent  of  expectancy 
thrilled  Dublin  that  evening;  an  indescribable  feeling  that 
something  was  going  to  happen.  Rumors  of  all  kinds  were 
circulated,  but  one  persisted,  namely  that,  in  spite  of  the 
proclamation  and  the  warrant  for  his  arrest,  Jim  Larkin  would 
address  the  meeting. 

Sunday  morning  came,  gracious  and  soft  as  a  typical  Irish 
morning.  Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  a  body  of  men 
marched  out  of  the  city  to  Fairview.  They  were  the  members 
of  the  Citizen  Army,  and  the  attention  of  the  police  was 
focused  on  them  immediately.  As  the  morning  wore  on,  the 
churches  emptied  themselves  of  their  large  congregations,  and 
between  twelve  and  one  o'clock  O'Connell  Street  was  thronged 
with  laughing,  good-natured  people.  Most  of  them  were 
making  their  way  home  from  Mass,  but  some  of  them  lingered, 
wondering  if  Larkin  would  keep  his  word. 

In  company  with  some  friends,  the  writer  was  turning  from 
Middle  Abbey  Street  into  O'Connell  Street  when  a  jaunting 
car  dashed  by.  Sitting  on  it  were  the  Countess  Markievicz 
and  Francis  Sheehy-Skeffington.  They  stopped  at  the  door 
of  the  Imperial  Hotel,  and  the  attention  of  the  passing  crowds 
seemed  suddenly  to  center  around  them,  when  out  upon  a 
balcony  of  the  hotel  stepped  a  tall,  grave,  and  bearded  gentle- 
man in  morning  attire  beyond  reproach.  Bowing  graciously 
to  the  assembled  people,  he  removed  his  shining  silk  hat  and 
impressive  beard.  And  then  a  cheer  went  up  —  a  cheer  that 
might  have  been  heard  for  miles.  Jim  Larkin  had  kept  his  word. 

In  a  second,  O'Connell  Street  became  the  scene  of  the 
wildest  confusion.  Out  of  Prince's  Street,  where  they  had 
been  lined  up  in  waiting,  dashed  the  police  with  their  batons. 
Right  and  left  they  charged,  caring  not  whom  they  struck. 
Men,  women,  and  children  were  knocked  down  and  beaten. 
Men  were  clubbed  to  death,  and  O'Connell  Street  was  red 
with  the  blood  of  defenseless  people. 


174   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


That  was  another  Bloody  Sunday  to  be  stored  in  Ireland's 

memory. 

On  the  following  Wednesday  the  men  murdered  by  the 
police  were  buried  in  Glasnevin.  The  funeral  was  an  impres- 
sive demonstration  of  public  feeling.  The  bodies  were  taken 
to  the  Pro-Cathedral,  where  special  services  were  held,  the 
streets  being  lined  with  indignant  people.  The  most  striking 
feature  of  the  funeral  was  the  army  of  working  men  and 
women  who  attended.  Many  processions  have  been  held  in 
Dublin,  —  language  parades  and  pageants  that,  voicing  the 
warmth  and  color  of  Irish-Ireland,  set  one's  heart  to  beat 
at  a  quickened  pace,  —  but  Dublin  never  before  witnessed 
anything  so  impressive  as  these  hosts  of  working  men  and 
women  that  went  marching,  marching,  interminably  marching 
past  in  silent  tribute  to  their  dead.  Alongside  of  them  a  car 
moved  slowly.  On  it  were  the  Count  and  Countess  Markie- 
vicz.  The  Countess  was  in  white,  but  against  her  white 
dress  lay  a  large  wreath,  scarlet  like  blood. 

In  the  Rotunda,  at  the  Aonach  and  during  the  week  of  the 
Oireachtas,  the  Countess  was  a  prominent  figure,  particularly 
in  the  Art  Section,  where  her  training  and  artistic  talent  made 
her  assistance  invaluable.  Sometimes  she  would  sell  Sinn 
Fein  pamphlets,  or  pictures  of  Tone  and  Emmet  at  the  Sinn 
Fein  stall;  and  again  she  would  be  found  with  her  beloved 
boys  of  the  Fianna.  In  her  own  home  she  was  a  charming 
hostess.  She  loved  to  gather  around  her  the  young  and 
gifted  who  were  helping  to  make  Ireland  a  Nation,  and  to 
those  who  were  privileged  to  be  present  at  these  gatherings 
they  will  remain  forever  a  fragrant  and  inspiring  memory. 

Closely  associated  with  the  Countess  in  all  her  work  for 
Ireland  was  her  intimate  friend,  Helena  Moloney.  She  was 
a  retiring  and  quiet  girl  who  could,  when  the  occasion  de- 
manded it,  become  as  aggressive  and  as  determined  as  she 
was  ordinarily  shy  and  modest.  Helena  served  many  jail 
sentences  in  Dublin,  prior  to  and  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
war,  for  speeches  made  in  the  public  streets  against  recruiting. 
Helena  and  the  Countess  were  two  of  the  hardest  workers 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  175 


during  the  visit  of  King  George  of  England  to  Dublin  in  1911. 
Both  of  them  made  the  round  of  the  city  night  after  night, 
speaking  on  street  corners  and  appealing  to  the  people  to 
show  to  the  English  monarch  the  true  spirit  of  the  people  of 
Ireland.  On  all  these  occasions  the  Union  Jack  was  burned 
amid  the  cheers  of  the  people,  and  the  police  were  powerless 
to  interfere.  Although  the  treatment  given  her  in  jail  broke 
down  her  health  little  by  little,  she  persevered  with  her  task, 
each  sentence  serving  but  to  strengthen  her  determination  to 
carry  on  the  work  to  the  end. 

There  were  scores  of  other  women  who  did  splendid  work 
before  the  Rebellion,  and  took  their  stand  with  the  men  when 
the  Flag  of  Irish  Freedom  was  hoisted  over  the  Irish  Capital. 
From  women  and  girls  of  trained  intellect  to  the  daughters 
of  the  very  poorest,  the  women  of  Dublin  answered  nobly  to 
the  call  of  freedom.  That  the  conduct  of  the  British  soldiers 
in  the  city  during  the  years  preceding  the  Rebellion  fanned 
the  indignation  of  Irish  women  against  England  goes  without 
saying;  and  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  Ireland,  since  the  siege  of  Limerick,  the  Irish  women 
rose  in  a  body  to  combat  the  power  of  England  and  take  part 
in  the  battle  for  liberty. 

None  of  the  women  are  more  deserving  of  praise  than  the 
working  girls  and  women  of  the  city.  Girls  employed  at 
Jacob's  Biscuit  Works  and  at  other  places  in  the  city  rallied 
to  the  call  and  did  magnificent  work.  They  had  been  well 
trained  and  well  organized  long  before  the  rising.  They 
showed  a  wonderful  aptitude  for  the  tasks  assigned  to  them, 
and  spent  many  hours  every  evening  learning  their  parts  — 
to  act  as  Red  Cross  nurses,  as  special  messengers,  and  in  a 
score  of  other  capacities  that  enabled  them  to  be  of  supreme 
service  in  the  hour  when  they  were  needed. 

These  girls  had  the  best  of  reasons  for  taking  part  in  the 
rebellion.  At  the  time  of  the  strikes  in  Dublin  during  1913 
they  had  been  subjected  to  every  indignity  that  could  be 
heaped  on  them.  Working  long  hours  for  a  mere  pittance, 
they  proved  that  their  spirit  had  survived,  that  in  spite  of 


176   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  drudgery  to  which  they  were  subjected  they  were  still 
capable  of  asserting  the  rights  that  were  theirs. 

Another  section  that  did  fine  work  was  the  organization 
known  as  the  Cumann  na  mBan>  or  Irish  Women's  Council. 
Mrs.  Thomas  Clarke,  wife  of  the  leader  of  the  Irish  Revolu- 
tionary Brotherhood,  was  one  of  the  most  active  workers  in 
this  body,  and  she  was  ably  assisted  by  many  other  well- 
known  women  of  Dublin,  including  Mrs.  Eoin  MacNeill, 
Helena  Moloney,  and  the  Countess  Markievicz.  Mrs.  Clarke, 
Mrs.  MacNeill,  and  Mrs.  Gill  were  women  of  social  standing 
who  were  the  mothers  of  families,  and  who  had  every  reason 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  positions  they  held,  but  they  were 
unable  to  resist*  the  call  of  the  country. 

These  women  not  only  took  up  the  study  of  Red  Cross 
work,  but  also  learned  much  of  the  art  of  the  soldier.  They 
belonged  to  a  militant  organization,  and  were  not  content 
to  take  a  passive  part  in  the  work.  They  met  every  evening 
at  their  headquarters,  where  they  learned  to  shoot  and  march, 
and  many  of  them  became  crack  shots  with  the  revolver  and 
the  rifle.  In  addition,  every  member  learned  the  mechanism 
of  the  weapons,  with  the  result  that  they  were  able  to  be  of 
valuable  assistance  to  the  men.  The  part  that  they  played 
in  the  actual  fighting  showed  the  thoroughness  of  the  drilling 
they  went  through  for  many  months  before  the  rising. 

In  one  other  way,  also,  these  women  were  of  the  greatest 
assistance  to  the  men.  At  the  inaugural  meeting  of  the 
Volunteers  in  1913  a  special  appeal  was  made  to  the  women 
for  cooperation.  There  were  many  women  at  that  meeting, 
and,  when  the  meeting  was  over,  these  women  made  arrange- 
ments to  form  an  organization  to  supplement  the  work  of  the 
men.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan.  It 
was  first  intended  that  the  members  should  take  up  the  work 
of  collecting  funds  for  the  purchase  of  rifles  and  ammunition  for 
the  Volunteers.  They  carried  on  this  work  for  many  months, 
but  gradually  developed  into  a  militant  organization  of  their 
own.    These  women  were  instrumental  in  collecting  a  large 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  177 


sum  of  money  for  the  arming  of  the  men,  and  they  also 
armed  themselves.  In  view  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
British  soldiers  in  Dublin  had  acted  towards  the  women  of 
the  city,  it  was  recognized  that,  rebellion  apart,  every  girl 
and  woman  of  Dublin  should  possess  a  gun  and  the  ability 
to  use  it  in  an  emergency. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


Thinkers  and  Men 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  personalities  in  public  life 
in  Ireland  for  many  years  was  Arthur  Griffith. 
While  he  took  no  active  part  in  the  rising,  his  work 
during  the  years  which  preceded  it  was  such  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  overestimate  his  influence  on  the  Irish  people. 
The  manner  in  which  he  was  treated  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment immediately  after  the  surrender  shows  that  the  English 
officials  were  well  aware  of  the  part  he  had  played.  Of 
medium  height,  square  build,  and  great  muscular  development, 
and  with  a  finely  developed  head,  Griffith  was  a  man  of 
commanding  appearance,,  who  impressed  one  immediately  as 
a  man  of  keen  intellect.  Quiet  and  very  reserved  in  the 
presence  of  strangers,  he  was  kindly  Irish  of  the  Irish  in  his 
home.  One  had  indeed  to  know  him  intimately  to  appreciate 
the  true  worth  of  the  man.  Few  men  in  Dublin  had  so  great 
a  knowledge  of  Irish  history  and  literature  as  Griffith,  and  he 
was,  in  addition,  an  able  politician,  if  we  use  the  term  in  its 
true  sense,  and  not  in  the  sinister  meaning  which  it  has 
acquired  in  Ireland  during  the  past  decade. 

Griffith  spent  many  years  in  South  Africa,  working  in  the 
Transvaal  diamond  mines,  but,  even  during  this  period,  he 
kept  in  close  touch  with  Irish  affairs,  and  was  a  contributor 
to  the  Shan  Van  Vocht.  He  possessed  a  natural  talent  for 
writing,  and  had  a  terse  and  vigorous  style  that  made  a 
direct  appeal  to  his  readers.  He  was  thus  able  to  make  good 
use  of  his  knowledge  of  history,  and  of  his  genius  for  statistics 
and  analysis  which  lent  such  power  to  his  writings. 

On  his  return  to  Ireland  he  took  up  the  editorship  of  The 
United  Irishman,  and  made  it  one  of  the  most  widely  read 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


179 


papers  in  the  country.  His  editorial  articles  attracted  almost 
universal  attention,  while  his  criticisms  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
mentary Party  caused  no  little  uneasiness  to  its  leaders. 
A  libel  action,  however,  put  an  end  to  the  paper,  but,  as  has 
frequently  happened  in  the  annals  of  Irish  journalism,  the 
paper  was  discontinued  for  a  very  short  period,  only  to  reap- 
pear as  Sinn  Fein. 

Griffith  now  propounded  his  Sinn  Fein  policy.  After  a 
close  study  of  general  history,  he  finally  became  particularly 
interested  in  the  histories  of  Poland,  Finland,  and  Hungary. 
So  keen  did  his  interest  in  Hungary  become  that  he  issued  a 
lengthy  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Resurrection  of  Hungary," 
which  enjoyed  a  tremendous  popularity  and  which  contained 
a  telling  object-lesson  for  the  people  of  Ireland.  This  paved 
the  way  for  the  Sinn  Fein  policy,  and,  when  Griffith  made 
his  famous  speech  detailing  the  various  points  of  that  policy, 
the  result  was  electrical.  Praise  and  ridicule  were  heaped 
upon  the  policy  and  its  author,  but  the  practicability  of  the 
plan  was  seen  by  a  large  number  of  men  who  immediately 
identified  themselves  with  the  new  movement.  "Sinn  Fein" 
became  a  battle-cry  throughout  the  country,  and,  as  has 
already  been  shown,  many  of  the  brightest  spirits  of  the 
younger  generation  of  Irishmen  flocked  to  the  new  standard. 

It  had  always  been  one  of  Griffith's  ideals  to  establish  a 
daily  paper  in  Ireland  along  national  lines.  Up  to  1909  the 
only  papers  that  could  be  called  truly  national  were  weekly, 
the  others  being  merely  professional  political  organs.  In 
1909  Griffith  established  Sinn  Fein,  bringing  out  the  paper 
every  afternoon  with  all  the  news  of  the  country  and  cable 
news  from  abroad.  The  first  issue  was  dated  Tuesday, 
August  24,  and  its  appearance  was  heralded  by  throngs  in 
the  streets  in  the  vicinity  of  Middle  Abbey  Street,  where  the 
paper  was  published.  The  paper  was  eagerly  bought  up  by 
the  people,  and  the  first  issue  was  sold  almost  as  soon  as  it 
had  been  run  off  the  press.  The  paper  was  printed  on  Irish 
paper  with  Irish  ink,  and  was  Irish  in  every  line  of  its  make- 
up.   The  Editorial,  entitled  "Ourselves,"  was  as  follows: 


180   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


We  give  the  Nation  to-day  a  daily  journal.  The  parties  in  Ire- 
land have  their  organs  —  the  Nation  hitherto  has  had  none.  We 
support  the  policy  of  Sinn  Fein,  because  we  are  convinced  that  of 
the  policies  before  this  country  it  is  the  most  effective.  But  we 
do  not  confound  the  policy  with  the  Nation.  Sinn  Fein  is  not  the 
Nation.  Parliamentarianism  is  not  the  Nation,  Unionism  is  not  the 
Nation  —  all  are  but  weapons  offered  to  the  Nation;  and,  by  their 
effectiveness  in  the  Nation's  service,  they  must  be  judged  and  re- 
tained or  discarded.  The  Nation  belongs  exclusively  to  none  of  us, 
Nationalists  or  Unionists,  Catholics  or  Protestants,  rich  or  poor  — 
it  belongs  to  us  all,  and  it  is  greater  than  us  all.  The  party  comes 
and  goes  —  the  Nation  remains  for  ever.  The  quarrels  of  the  par- 
ties of  the  past  in  Ireland  are  of  no  living  account  to  us  to-day. 
What  we  now  ask  about  past  movements  is  what  they  achieved  for 
the  Nation.  What  our  children  will  ask  about  the  movements  of 
to-day  will  be  the  same  question.  It  will  be  of  no  more  interest  to 
them  than  the  passing  breeze  whether  Sinn  Fein  scored  a  point  over 
Parliamentarianism,  or  whether  Parliamentarianism  scored  a  point 
over  Unionism.  What  victories  did  they  win  for  the  Nation?  That 
is  the  question  they  will  ask,  and  by  the  reply  we  shall  be  judged. 
How  did  the  parties  in  Ireland  in  1909  make  Ireland  —  the  Ireland 
of  us  all  —  happier,  freer,  stronger,  more  prosperous  and  more  re- 
spected? In  1929  that  is  all  the  people  of  Ireland  will  be  interested 
in  knowing  about  our  parties  of  to-day.  In  your  hearts,  fellow- 
countrymen,  you  know  this  to  be  true. 

Parnell  never  said  a  wiser  thing  than  that  Ireland  could  not  spare 
the  services  of  a  single  one  of  her  sons  and  daughters.  Ireland  is 
poor  and  weak;  her  enemies  are  strong  and  powerful.  Any  policy 
that  would  prevent  an  Irishman  or  an  Irishwoman  working  for  his 
or  her  country's  good,  is  a  policy  that  must  tend  to  keep  Ireland 
poor  and  weak.  That  intolerance  has  been  the  sin  of  nearly  all 
parties  in  Ireland,  is  a  fact  none  of  us  can  deny.  That  this  intoler- 
ance has  cost  Ireland  the  services  of  thousands  of  her  best  men,  is 
a  fact  we  affirm.  So  fatuous  a  policy  will  never  be  ours.  We  recog- 
nize that  the  people  of  Ireland  as  a  whole,  whatever  their  party, 
whatever  their  creed,  whatever  their  class  may  be,  are  at  least  as 
patriotic  as  the  people  of  the  thriving  nations.  We  recognize  that 
the  great  mass  of  those  who  support  Parliamentarianism  or  Union- 
ism are  as  honest  in  their  belief  and  as  sincere  in  their  desire  to 
serve  Ireland  as  their  brethren  who  support  the  Sinn  Fein  policy. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  181 


Were  we  to  believe  otherwise  we  would  believe  that  the  bulk  of  the 
Irish  people  cared  nothing  for  their  country  —  and  no  one  who  knows 
Ireland  could  believe  so  base  a  thing.  Behind  all  the  fierceness, 
bitterness,  and  intolerance  of  party  lies  a  deep  and  passionate  pa- 
triotism, and  it  is  that  patriotism  to  which  we  appeal  —  to  which 
we  shall  give  an  articulate  organ  —  on  which  we  shall  rebuild,  in  the 
manly  love  of  comrades,  the  Nation. 

In  a  sentence,  reversing  the  custom  that  has  long  prevailed  in  our 
public  affairs,  we  shall  seek  to  find  points  of  agreement  and  not 
points  of  difference,  and  we  shall  support  every  honest  effort  and 
give  full  credit  to  our  countrymen  of  other  political  parties  for  all 
the  work  they  perform  for  the  common  good.  We  shall  refuse  to 
regard  any  Irish  party  as  our  enemies.   They  may  be  our  opponents 

—  they  shall  not  be  our  enemies.  Our  enemies  are  those  who  govern, 
and  misgovern,  this  country  against  the  will  of  its  people  —  not  any 
section  of  our  own  countrymen. 

We  pledge  ourselves  to-day  to  support  every  man  and  every  party 

—  however  divergent  their  opinions  may  be  from  ours  on  other 
points  —  in  any  work  to  the  credit  and  honor  of  our  common  Na- 
tion, and  to  defend  the  right  of  the  man  who  disagrees  with  us  on 
one  point  to  be  heard  on  the  other  nine.  Ireland  again  a  Nation  has 
been  the  dream  of  generations;  it  will  never  be  a  fact  until  we  all 

—  whether  our  party  color  be  orange,  green,  or  blue  —  realize  that 
we  are  Irishmen  before  we  are  party  men.  We  believe  that  sincere 
men  of  all  parties  —  and  the  sincere  men  are  a  great  majority  in  every 
Irish  party — are  realizing  this  to-day;  that  the  old  evil  and  absurd 
policy  of  driving  men  out  of  public  life  because  they  cannot  sub- 
scribe to  all  the  tenets  of  the  predominant  party  is  dying,  and  that 
the  ideal  of  Thomas  Davis  —  an  Ireland  in  which  its  people,  differ- 
ing widely  in  policy  and  methods,  are  united  in  the  love  and  service 
of  their  country  —  is  growing  in  the  minds  of  men  on  both  sides  of 
the  Boyne.  We  are  here  to  realize  that  ideal,  and  we  claim  the  sup- 
port of  all  our  countrymen  in  the  work  we  have  undertaken. 

This  declaration  of  policy  shows  Griffith  as  he  really  was 
better  than  many  pages  of  appreciation  might  do.  We  have 
already  shown  how  his  paper  was  suppressed  during  the  war, 
and  how  he  kept  up  the  fight  by  publishing  one  periodical  after 
another  to  tell  the  men  and  the  women  of  Ireland  the  true 
facts  of  the  situation.    That  he  played  a  large  and  an  im- 


182   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


portant  part  in  the  subsequent  events  cannot  be  denied.  He 
educated  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  brought  about  a  revival 
of  the  old  spirit  of  self-reliance  and  patriotism.  He  believed 
firmly  that  the  final  appeal  would  have  to  be  to  force  of 
arms,  but  he  also  believed  that  this,  in  order  to  be  successful, 
must  be  founded  on  a  firm  educational  basis,  and  it  was  to 
this  foundation  that  he  directed  all  his  efforts. 

There  is  one  other  man  whom  we  should  consider  in  this 
chapter,  as  being  somewhat  akin  to  Griffith.  This  is  Eoin 
MacNeill,  the  leader  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Rebellion,  and  a  man  who  was  more  or  less  directly 
responsible  for  their  formation.  A  man  of  striking  appearance 
and  brilliant  intellect,  he  devoted  all  his  energies  to  Ireland 
and  her  freedom,  and,  whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of 
the  tragic  error  that  will  forever  be  associated  with  his  name, 
the  fact  remains  that  his  actions  were  sincere  and  his  motives 
were  of  the  highest. 

He  also  was  deeply  versed  in  the  history  and  the  traditions 
of  his  country,  and  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Gael.  He  first  entered  public  life  as  Vice-President  of  the 
Gaelic  League,  of  which  he  was  the  real  founder,  and  later 
became  associated  with  the  official  organ  of  the  League,  An 
Cleadheamh  Soluis.  In  this  paper,  during  the  year  1913, 
MacNeill  wrote  a  number  of  articles  drawing  attention  to  the 
manner  in  which  Carson's  Volunteers  were  spreading,  and 
suggesting  that  a  meeting  be  called  for  the  purpose  of  forming 
the  Irish  Volunteers.  He  presided  at  the  meeting  in  the 
Rotunda  Rink,  and  became  the  first  President  of  the  Volun- 
teers. He  was  indefatigable  in  his  work  for  the  Volunteers, 
and  edited  their  official  organ,  The  Volunteer,  in  the  pages  of 
which,  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  until  the  suppression  of 
the  paper,  he  advocated  a  policy  of  staying  at  home  and 
vigorously  denounced  the  attempts  made  to  force  Irishmen 
into  the  British  army.  While  the  Government  was  doing 
everything  in  its  power  to  inflame  the  Irish  people,  MacNeill 
was  one  of  its  most  caustic  critics.  Especially  caustic  was  his 
criticism  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Defense  of  the  Realm 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  183 


Act  was  carried  out  by  the  British  authorities.  As  affording 
an  insight  into  MacNeilPs  views  and  into  the  anomalous 
condition  of  Ireland,  the  following  article  written  by  MacNeill 
in  The  Volunteer  of  September,  1915,  is  interesting. 

General  Friend,  the  responsible  military  authority  in  Ireland,  had 
only  a  limited  knowledge  of  civil  and  political  affairs  in  Ireland.  To 
supply  the  defect,  Mr.  Birrell  placed  one  of  his  subordinates,  Mr. 
Price,  a  county  inspector  of  police,  at  the  General's  disposal.  In 
this  way  Mr.  Birrell  ceased  to  be  responsible,  and  to  care  two  straws 
for  anything  that  Mr.  Price,  now  Major  Price,  may  advise  to  be 
done.  General  Friend  cannot  well  go  behind  the  advice  of  Major 
Price,  his  Intelligence  Officer,  since  without  the  Major  the  General 
would  be  without  intelligence.  The  Major,  for  his  part,  refuses  in 
court  to  go  behind  what  the  General  does  on  the  Major's  advice. 
The  Crown  explains  in  court  that  "there  was  the  parallel  of  the 
Dictator  in  ancient  Roman  history."  It  is  not  a  bad  parallel  for 
the  champions  of  liberty  and  nationality  in  the  twentieth  century. 
The  Dictator  of  Ireland  is  evidently  the  gallant  Major,  who  has 
reached  his  military  honors  by  a  short  way  from  Tipperary,  where 
he  completed  his  qualifications  in  "intelligence"  as  a  police  inspector 
under  Mr.  Birrell.  The  General  is  naturally  dependent  on  whatever 
advice  the  Major  wishes  to  dictate.  The  Major  is  Dictator,  with 
full  power  over  the  liberty  of  the  subject. 

The  Major,  having  advised  the  General,  who  would  be  acting  in 
the  dark  without  the  Major's  intelligence,  admits  in  court  that  "the 
military  authorities,"  the  Dictator  and  the  General,  "are  responsible 
to  the  Nation."  The  Nation  Once  Again  —  the  Irish-Scottish-Welsh- 
English  nation.  "There  never  was  a  Defense  of  the  Realm  Act 
passed  before,"  says  Major  Price  to  the  court.  That  is  true.  Never 
until  we  got  Home  Rule  on  the  Statute  Book,  was  it  in  the  power, 
of  one  policeman  to  consign  Irishmen  to  banishment  without  even 
stating  the  evidence  in  court.  "What  that  evidence  was  I  am  not 
going  to  tell  you,"  is  the  Dictator's  own  statement.  Formerly, 
when  there  was  no  evidence,  it  required  at  least  the  hard  swearing 
of  two  police  witnesses  to  destroy  an  Irishman's  liberty.  Now  that 
we  have  Home  Rule  on  the  Statute  Book  we  have  changed  all  that, 
and  it  is  a  change  for  the  better.  It  obviates  hard  swearing,  which, 
however  necessary,  is  never  pleasant.  The  Defense  of  the  Realm 
Act  makes  for  veracity. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


The  Irish  in  America 

ONE  of  the  essential  components  of  the  American  people, 
using  the  term  in  its  modern  sense,  is  the  Gael.  The 
Irish  have  made  their  mark  on  the  history  of  the 
United  States,  have  secured  positions  of  power  and  influence, 
and  have  thrown  their  racial  characteristics  into  the  melt- 
ing pot,  out  of  which  has  been  produced  the  American 
mind  and  the  new  American  nation.  Driven  from  their 
homeland  by  a  system  of  Government  that  made  personal 
freedom  impossible,  the  Irish  emigrated  to  America  in  mil- 
lions. At  first,  like  other  immigrants,  most  of  them  had  to 
content  themselves  with  the  more  laborious  tasks,  while  the 
police  and  fire  departments  of  the  great  and  small  cities 
absorbed  thousands  of  them.  But  with  the  dead  weight  of 
foreign  oppression  removed  from  their  shoulders  and  the 
opportunity  of  education  and  advancement  presenting  itself, 
the  Gael  rapidly  rose  to  positions  of  affluence  and  influence. 

From  the  days  when  the  young  nation  had  tested  its 
strength  with  the  oppressor  of  Ireland  and  America  alike,  the 
Irish  in  America  had  proven  their  loyalty  to  the  land  of  their 
adoption.  When  the  time  came  for  action,  they  were  ready 
to  shed  their  blood  for  America.  Their  American  patriotism 
was  pure  and  unselfish,  just  as  their  devotion  was  true  and 
unselfish  to  the  land  of  their  birth.  It  was  this  loyalty  to  an 
ideal,  to  a  national  ideal  and  to  a  patriotic  instinct,  that 
made  the  Irish  in  America  often  more  American  than  the 
Americans  themselves.  The  Irish  had  learned  great  lessons, 
and  had  profited  by  them.  They  loved  America  because 
America  granted  to  them  that  liberty  which  a  foreign  power 
denied  them  in  their  own  land. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


185 


Yet  back  of  it  all  and  deep  down  in  his  soul  the  Gael 
remained  true  to  Ireland.  That  little  island  three  thousand 
miles  away  exercised  a  fascination  that  no  Irishman  was  able 
to  resist.  True,  he  might  at  times  forget.  There  were  times 
when  events  were  pressing  in  the  new  country,  when  the 
stress  of  living  or  the  excitement  of  adventure  led  his  thoughts 
away  from  his  native  land.  But  they  never  failed  to  return. 
A  chance  meeting  with  a  friend,  a  line  in  a  newspaper,  and 
there  would  again  flash  across  his  mental  vision  that  old 
dream  of  Ireland  a  Nation.  It  was  owing  to  this  that  he  was 
so  proudly  jealous  of  the  liberties  and  the  rights  of  the 
American  nation,  in  the  building  of  whose  fortunes  he  had 
played  no  insignificant  part.  His  love  and  enthusiasm  were 
not  divided.  He  stood  for  liberty,  whether  in  America  or  in 
Ireland,  in  Poland  or  Hungary.  Those  who  had  sought  to 
deprive  him  of  what  he  believed  the  birthright  of  every  man 
and  woman  and  child,  had  made  of  him  a  disciple  to  carry 
the  doctrine  of  human  liberty  into  every  corner  of  the  earth. 

The  story  of  the  formation  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  in 
America  has  already  been  briefly  told  in  these  pages.  That 
organization  was  the  banding  together  of  Irishmen  of  all 
creeds  and  all  parties  for  the  purpose  of  freeing  Ireland. 
Through  varying  degrees  of  fortune  that  organization  retained 
its  ideals,  which  were  never  anything  less  than  the  complete 
emancipation  of  Ireland  from  the  rule  of  the  foreigner.  To-day 
the  I.  R.  B.  is  what  it  was  on  the  first  day  of  the  formation 
of  the  Emmet  Memorial  Committee.  It  grew  rapidly  in  the 
years  preceding  the  Rebellion,  and  was  the  leading  Irish 
republican  organization  in  America.  The  men  in  Dublin 
and  the  men  of  the  I.  R.  B.  in  America  were  one  in  their 
ideals;  they  were  men  of  a  common  organization,  and  were 
actuated  by  the  same  desire.  Had  it  been  possible  for  the 
men  of  the  I.  R.  B.  in  America  to  have  traveled  to  Dublin 
before  the  rising,  they  would  have  been  found  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  Clarke,  Pearse,  The  O'Rahilly,  and  their  col- 
leagues. Ireland  could  have  enrolled  a  far  greater  "foreign 
legion"  than  fought  for  the  Allies  in  France. 


186   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


At  the  same  time  the  I.  R.  B.  did  not  represent  a  majority 
of  the  Irish  in  America  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
in  Europe.  Knowing  how  fruitful  a  field  America  has  always 
been  for  the  collection  of  money,  Redmond  and  his  colleagues 
made  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to  hold  the  attention  of  the 
people  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  concentrated  on  his  Home 
Rule  campaign,  and  he  was  able  to  do  this  with  so  much 
success  that  many  billions  of  dollars  were  subscribed  by  the 
Irish  people  here  in  order  to  enable  him  to  keep  up  the  fight. 
In  the  later  stages  of  his  campaign  this  money  was  used  for 
the  purpose  of  buying  public  opinion  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  in  subsidizing  newspapers,  particularly  the  degenerate 
Freeman  s  Journal  of  Dublin,  the  official  organ  of  the  party, 
and  The  Irish  News  of  Belfast,  which  existed  for  the  purpose 
of  keeping  Joseph  Devlin  prominent  in  the  eye  of  the  public. 

Among  the  staunchest  of  Redmond's  supporters  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  were  the  members  of  the  Ancient  Order  of 
Hibernians.  One  of  the  largest  Irish  organizations  in  the 
United  States,  it  was  able  to  mold  public  opinion  in  this 
country  any  way  that  Mr.  Redmond  wanted  it.  The  A.  O.  H. 
was  consistently  in  favor  of  the  Parliamentary  Party  right  up 
to  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  It  was  instrumental  in  collecting 
a  great  deal  of  the  money  that  was  sent  to  Mr.  Redmond 
from  America,  for  it  always  believed  that  the  Home  Rule 
cause  would  win  out,  and  that  by  it  Ireland  would  gain  her 
freedom. 

Another  influence  that  Redmond  was  able  to  wield  in 
America  was  The  Irish  World  newspaper,  perhaps  the  most 
powerful  force  in  Irish-American  circles.  Under  the  leadership 
of  Patrick  Ford,  one  of  the  most  sincere  Irishmen  in  America, 
The  Irish  World  was  able  to  supply  more  money  to  the 
Parliamentary  Party  than  any  other  single  agency.  Its 
columns  were  open  year  after  year  to  the  constantly  recurring 
appeals  made  by  Redmond  for  money.  In  the  sincere  belief 
that  he  was  acting  for  the  best,  Patrick  Ford  appealed  to  the 
thousands  of  readers  of  his  paper  to  support  the  Party,  and 
these  appeals  never  fell  on  deaf  ears. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  187 


Mention  should  also  be  made  of  the  San  Francisco  Leader, 
edited  by  Father  Yorke,  which  had  always  been  an  advocate 
of  the  physical  force  and  Sinn  Fein  movements.  The  Leader 
was  one  of  the  few  newspapers  that  did  not  believe  in  Red- 
mond, but  which  was  still  anxious  to  give  him  every  oppor- 
tunity of  carrying  out  his  promises.  The  Leader  and  a 
number  of  other  weekly  papers  wielded  an  influence  in  the 
country  that  was  by  no  means  negligible.  These  papers  had 
a  large  following  of  readers,  who  were  either  suspicious  of  the 
good  faith  of  Redmond  or  were  giving  him  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt  for  the  time  being. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Redmond  became  a  recruiting 
sergeant  for  the  Empire.  The  effect  in  America  was  striking 
and  instantaneous.  Led  by  The  Irish  World,  the  vast  major- 
ity of  Redmond's  followers  deserted  him.  Knowing  the  record 
of  the  British  Army  in  Ireland,  they  were  unable  to  under- 
stand how  any  Irish  leader  could  appeal  to  the  young  men  of 
Ireland  to  don  the  uniform  of  the  men  who  had,  only  a  few 
days  previously,  murdered  Irish  men  and  women  in  the  streets 
of  Dublin,  even  had  there  not  been  a  long  list  of  crimes  of 
the  most  brutal  nature  to  be  charged  up  against  English 
soldiers  in  earlier  years.  Redmond  overestimated  his  in- 
fluence when  he  thought  he  could  sway  the  Irish  of  America 
to  a  concurrence  with  his  plans.  He  found  that  they  were 
still  Irish,  and  still  remained  true  to  the  traditions  of  their 
country. 

The  defection  of  The  Irish  World  was  the  first  blow  that 
the  "recruiting  sergeant"  received.  He  retaliated  by  getting 
the  British  Government  to  have  the  paper  proclaimed  through- 
out Ireland  and  an  order  issued  prohibiting  it  being  imported 
into  Ireland.  By  these  means  Redmond  probably  hoped  he 
would  be  able  to  keep  the  people  from  knowing  the  true 
sentiment  of  the  Irish  in  America.  In  this  he  was  disap- 
pointed, owing  to  the  fact  that  the  new  editor  of  the  paper, 
Robert  E.  Ford,  son  of  Patrick  Ford,  who  had  succeeded  his 
father  in  the  management  of  the  paper  on  the  death  of  the 
former,  found  ways  and  means  of  getting  the  paper  to  the 


188   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Irish  people.  Needless  to  say,  Redmond  was  also  unable  to 
prevent  the  paper  being  sold  to  the  Irish  people  in  America, 
and  The  Irish  World  was  able  to  do  yeoman  service  in  expos- 
ing the  facts  of  the  situation  to  the  people  of  this  country. 
The  paper  conducted  a  vigorous  campaign  against  the  recruit- 
ing policy,  and  later,  when  the  proposals  were  made  and 
accepted  by  Redmond  for  the  partition  of  Ireland  as  a  further 
sop  to  the  English  Tories,  The  Irish  World  was  one  of  the 
most  bitter  opponents  of  the  scheme. 

Following  immediately  after  the  change  made  by  The  Irish 
World,  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  in  America  transferred 
its  allegiance.  National  President  Joseph  McLaughlin  came 
out  in  an  uncompromising  manner  against  Redmond.  In  the 
course  of  a  letter  to  The  Irish  World  on  March  27,  1915,  he 
stated  his  views,  saying  that  ninety  per  cent  of  the  Hibernians 
were  against  recruiting.  He  added  that  he  was  expressing 
the  practically  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Order  of  which  he 
was  the  President.    His  letter  ran  in  part; 

The  work  of  Ireland  cannot  be  done  by  shedding  Irish  blood  under 
the  British  flag,  in  a  cause  which  does  not  concern  either  the  honor 
or  the  safety  of  Ireland  or  her  people  either  at  home  or  abroad. 
.  .  .  The  recruiting  policy  is  treason.  It  cannot  deceive,  however 
cunningly  masked,  the  thinking  majority  of  the  race  who  remember 
that  the  nation  which  enforced  the  Penal  Laws  against  Catholics, 
which  forced  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  out  into  the  moun- 
tains to  defend  the  priest  and  the  schoolmaster,  which  kept  the 
masses  in  poverty  and  ignorance,  which  "rooted  out"  millions  in  a 
single  century,  is  the  same  nation  which  now  seeks  to  whistle  them 
back  with  vague  promises  and  asks  them  to  "save  the  Empire"! 
It  is  not  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  to 
"save  the  Empire."  But  it  is  its  duty  to  save  the  young  men  of 
Ireland  for  the  mothers  and  wives  at  home.  The  only  words  that  real 
Hibernians  can  fervently  utter  at  this  time  are  the  words  that  were 
first  defiantly  spoken  on  an  English  scaffold  —  "God  Save  Ireland." 

The  defection  of  the  Hibernians  was  followed  by  similar 
action  on  the  part  of  many  other  organizations,  with  the 
result  that  before  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  the  war  ninety- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  189 


five  per  cent  of  the  Irish  in  America  were  united  in  a  common 
bond  against  the  betrayal  of  Ireland.  There  were  a  few  who 
remained  with  Redmond,  but  they  dwindled  day  by  day,  as 
the  news  came  of  one  betrayal  of  principle  after  another. 

This  union  of  the  various  sections  of  Irish  opinion  in 
America,  at  the  time  when  the  same  thing  was  taking  place  in 
Ireland,  is  one  of  the  most  significant  features  of  the  situation. 
It  demonstrated,  better  than  anything  else  could  do,  the  fact 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  Irish  people  at  home  and  abroad 
were  not  in  favor  of  Great  Britain  or  her  recruiting  sergeant. 
One  of  the  finest  results  of  the  union  of  parties  in  America 
was  the  holding  of  the  First  Annual  Convention  of  the  Irish 
Race  in  America  at  the  Hotel  Astor,  New  York  City,  in 
March,  1916.  This  convention  was  attended  by  over  2000 
delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  resolutions  were 
unanimously  adopted,  declaring  for  the  freedom  of  Ireland, 
denouncing  the  Parliamentary  Party  for  its  betrayal,  and 
asking  the  assistance  of  neutral  nations  in  securing  for  Ireland 
a  place  at  the  Peace  Conference  when  it  met  to  end  the  war. 
Following  this  Convention  a  new  organization  was  formed, 
known  as  the  Friends  of  Irish  Freedom,  which  spread  with 
lightning-like  rapidity  throughout  America.  A  few  weeks 
later  the  men  had  risen  in  Dublin  in  another  effort  to  win 
the  liberty  of  Ireland. 

This  brief  and  necessarily  incomplete  sketch  of  the  activities 
of  the  Irish  in  America  is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  Irish 
here  were  not  in  sympathy  with  Redmond,  who,  from  the 
time  he  became  a  recruiting  sergeant  for  the  British  Empire, 
was  denounced  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 
Redmond  was  dead  so  far  as  America  was  concerned,  without 
the  faintest  hope  of  being  ever  again  able  to  win  back  even 
a  shadow  of  his  former  power.  The  Irish  in  America  were 
interested  in  the  liberty  of  Ireland,  and  not  in  the  salvation 
of  the  British  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XXX 


Sir  Roger  Casement 

AS  each  phase  of  the  history  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  of 
1916  is  considered,  it  becomes  increasingly  difficult 
to  treat  of  the  subject  within  any  set  limits.  The 
case  of  Sir  Roger  Casement  might  well  be  a  story  to  itself. 
The  part  which  he  played  in  the  Rebellion  and  the  manner 
of  his  trial  and  final  martyrdom  render  him  of  particular 
interest  to  the  student  of  Irish  history.  His  striking  person- 
ality, his  pure  and  noble  patriotism,  his  simple  love  for  his 
country,  and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  humanity  will  rank 
him  among  the  most  striking  figures  in  the  history  of  his 
century. 

From  his  first  appearance  in  public  life  his  career  was  a 
notable  one.  Born  in  County  Antrim  of  English  Protestant 
parents  on  September  1,  1864,  he  received  a  full  course  of 
university  education,  and  began  his  diplomatic  career  with 
his  appointment  to  the  Niger  Coast  Oil  Rivers  Protectorate 
on  July  31,  1892.  On  June  27,  1893,  he  was  appointed  Consul 
in  the  Portuguese  Province  of  Lorenzo  Marquez,  and  on 
July  29,  1898,  Consul  for  the  Portuguese  Possessions  of  West 
Africa,  south  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 

His  services  in  these  capacities  were  such  that  during  the 
war  in  South  Africa  he  was  engaged  on  special  service  in 
Cape  Town  in  1899  and  again  in  1900,  and  was  rewarded,  on 
the  conclusion  of  the  war,  by  the  decoration  of  the  Queen  s 
Medal.  On  August  20,  1900,  he  was  transferred  to  the 
Congo  State,  and  was  appointed,  in  addition,  on  August  6, 
1901,  Consul  for  part  of  the  French  Congo  Colony.  His  work 
in  the  Congo  was  instrumental  in  revealing  the  atrocities  that 
the  Belgian  Government  was  committing  in  its  anxiety  to 
collect  the  rubber  with  which  that  region  abounded.  His 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1910  191 


knowledge  of  the  facts  that  shocked  the  civilized  world  had 
a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  attitude  he  took  when  the  cry 
of  "violated  Belgium"  was  made  the  excuse  for  England's 
declaration  of  war  on  Germany,  for  he  felt  that  any  punish- 
ment meted  out  to  Belgium  would  be  mild  chastisement  for 
a  nation  that  had  been  responsible  for  the  mutilation  and 
murder  of  countless  men,  women,  and  children  in  its  mad 
anxiety  for  money.  At  the  time  of  the  disclosures  England 
had  denounced  these  atrocities,  as  the  volume  entitled  "Red 
Rubber,"  published  by  Morel,  attests;  but  later  events  demon- 
strated that  the  main  purpose  of  England's  denunciation  was 
her  anxiety  to  control  the  rubber  industry  for  her  own  profit. 

On  June  30,  1905,  Casement  was  rewarded  for  his  services 
by  being  made  a  Commander  of  the  Order  of  St.  Michael  and 
St.  George,  and  on  August  13,  1906,  he  was  appointed  Consul 
for  the  State  of  San  Paolo,  with  a  residence  at  Santos.  On 
December  1,  1908,  he  was  promoted  to  Consul  General  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  on  June  20,  1911,  he  received  the  order  of 
Knighthood,  receiving  the  Coronation  Medal  in  the  same 
year.  From  1900  to  1912,  while  titular  Consul  General  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  he  was  employed  in  making  his  inquiries 
relative  to  the  rubber  industry  in  Putumayo,  and  headed  two 
Commissions  of  Inquiry,  which  resulted  in  some  astounding 
revelations.  On  August  1,  1913,  he  retired  from  public 
service  on  a  pension.  Prior  to  these  events,  in  1887,  Sir 
Roger  had  taken  part  in  the  expedition  led  by  Sir  Henry  M. 
Stanley  to  rescue  Emir  Pasha.  He  was  at  all  times  interested 
keenly  and  personally  in  everything  that  tended  to  the 
elimination  of  human  suffering.  Of  a  mild  and  gentle  disposi- 
tion, he  was  yet  fearless  and  brave  to  an  amazing  degree. 
He  seemed  to  have  no  sense  of  personal  danger,  and  numerous 
incidents  are  on  record  of  gallant  acts  performed  in  the  course 
of  his  duty  and  in  private  life. 

Following  his  retirement,  he  returned  to  his  native  country 
after  an  absence  of  many  years,  just  at  the  time  when  the 
Home  Rule  agitation  was  at  its  height.  He  was  in  Belfast 
at  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  Carson  Volunteers,  and 


192   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


seemed  to  be  greatly  impressed  by  the  progress  that  organiza- 
tion was  making  with  the  assistance  of  the  Liberal  Govern- 
ment. In  one  of  his  letters  he  makes  special  mention  of  the 
devices  he  saw  spread  across  the  streets  of  Belfast  on  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  paid  to  the  city  by  Sir  Edward  Carson, 
who  was  at  that  time  being  hailed  as  the  uncrowned  King  of 
Ulster.  Among  these  devices  he  mentions  two.  One  of  these 
read:  "Welcome  to  the  Kaiser";  and  the  other:  "We  prefer 
German  Rule  to  a  Home  Rule  Government."  These  signifi- 
cant declarations  were  not  without  effect  on  the  Irishman 
returning  to  his  native  land,  and,  when  the  Irish  Volunteers 
were  organized  in  Dublin  and  began  to  spread  throughout  the 
country,  Casement  took  an  active  part  in  the  movement,  and 
assisted  in  the  training  and  drilling  of  the  men. 

Early  in  June,  1914,  Casement  visited  the  United  States 
to  raise  money  for  the  arming  of  the  Irish  Volunteers.  He 
was  soon  able  to  show  that  his  professions  of  sympathy  with 
the  Irish  cause  were  sincere,  and  his  tall,  thin,  yet  wiry  figure 
was  seen  in  several  of  the  leading  cities  of  America.  He  met 
the  leading  Irishmen  of  New  York  City,  Philadelphia,  and 
other  places,  and  was  of  the  greatest  assistance  to  the  move- 
ment for  the  arming  of  the  Volunteers.  He  had  been  only  a 
little  while  in  America,  when  the  news  arrived  of  the  Massacre 
of  Bachelor's  Walk.  This  aroused  Casement  to  a  bitter 
attack  on  the  manner  in  which  the  British  Government  per- 
mitted the  landing  of  the  arms  for  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  and 
at  the  same  time  murdered  men  and  women  in  Dublin  for 
sympathizing  with  the  Irish  Volunteers  when  they  followed 
the  Orangemen's  example. 

This,  however,  was  not  the  first  occasion  on  which  Case- 
ment had  criticised  the  actions  of  the  Government.  While 
an  honest  and  efficient  servant,  he  was  never  servile.  His 
writings  from  August,  1911,  showed  that  he  saw  where  Eng- 
land's policy  was  leading  the  Empire,  and  he  repeatedly 
warned  his  Government  of  the  dangers  ahead.  He  recognized 
that  the  foreign  policy  of  Britain  was  directly  aimed  at 
driving  Germany,  her  only  serious  trade  rival  in  Europe,  to 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  193 


armed  protest.  His  warnings,  however,  fell  only  on  deaf  ears. 
The  British  Government  had  its  mind  made  up,  and  it  went 
ahead  with  its  policy  with  a  dogged  determination  that  allowed 
nothing  to  stand  in  the  way  of  attaining  its  purpose. 

In  August,  1911,  referring  to  a  statement  written  by  the 
Irish  novelist,  Charles  Lever,  Casement  wrote: 

As  long  ago  as  1870  an  Irishman  pointed  out  that,  if  the  English 
Press  did  not  abandon  the  campaign  of  prejudiced  suspicion  it  was 
even  then  conducting  against  Germany,  the  time  for  an  understand- 
ing between  Great  Britain  and  the  German  people  would  be  gone 
forever. 

What  Lever  pointed  out  during  the  early  stages  of  the  Franco- 
German  war  has  come  to  pass.  Germany  has,  indeed,  become 
thoroughly  disgusted,  and  the  hour  of  reconciliation  has  long  since 
gone  by.  In  Lever's  time  it  was  now  or  never;  the  chance  not 
taken  then  would  be  lost  forever,  and  the  English  publicist  of  to-day 
is  not  in  doubt  that  it  is  now  too  late.  His  heart-searchings  need 
another  formula  of  expression  —  no  longer  a  conditional  assertion  of 
doubt,  but  a  positive  questioning  of  impending  fact:  "Is  it  too 
soon?"  That  the  growing  German  navy  must  be  smashed  he  is  con- 
vinced, but  how  and  when  to  do  it  are  not  clear. 

In  the  course  of  the  same  article  he  speaks  of  British  policy 
in  Ireland  in  terms  that  prove  his  love  for  his  native  land  and 
the  correctness  of  his  vision  of  the  future.  He  warns  England 
of  the  danger  of  her  policy  in  Ireland  in  terms  that  admit  of 
no  misunderstanding.  The  following  extract  illustrates  his 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  situation: 

To  represent  the  island  as  a  poverty-stricken  land  inhabited  by  a 
turbulent  and  ignorant  race,  whom  she  has  with  unrewarded  solicitude 
sought  to  civilize,  uplift,  and  educate,  has  been  a  staple  of  England's 
diplomatic  trade  since  modern  diplomacy  began.  To  compel  the 
trade  of  Ireland  to  be  with  herself  alone;  to  cut  off  all  direct  com- 
munication between  Europe  and  this  second  of  European  islands, 
until  no  channel  remained  save  only  through  Britain;  to  enforce  the 
most  abject  political  and  economic  servitude  one  people  ever  imposed 
upon  another;  to  exploit  all  Irish  resources,  lands,  ports,  people, 
wealth,  even  her  religion,  everything  in  fine  that  Ireland  held,  to 
the  sole  profit  and  advancement  of  England,  and  to  keep  all  the 


194   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


books  and  rigorously  refuse  an  audit  of  the  transaction,  has  been 
the  secret  but  determined  policy  of  England. 

Writing  again  in  September,  1912,  Casement,  discussing 
the  certainty  of  war  between  England  and  Germany  and  the 
probable  outcome  of  the  struggle,  says: 

But  if  the  military  triumph  of  Germany  seems  thus  likely,  the 
ultimate  assurance,  nay,  even  the  ultimate  safety  of  German  civiliza- 
tion, can  only  be  secured  by  a  statesmanship  which  shall  not  repeat 
the  mistake  of  Louis  XIV  and  Napoleon.  The  military  defeat  of 
England  by  Germany  is  a  wholly  possible  feat  of  arms,  if  the  con- 
flict be  between  the  two  alone,  but,  to  realize  the  economic  and  politi- 
cal fruits  of  that  victory,  Ireland  must  be  detached  from  the  British 
Empire.  To  leave  defeated  England  still  in  the  full  possession  of 
Ireland  would  be,  not  to  settle  the  question  of  equal  German  rights 
at  sea  or  in  world  affairs,  but  merely  to  postpone  the  settlement  to 
a  second  and  possibly  far  greater  encounter.  It  would  be  somewhat 
as  if  Rome,  after  the  First  Punic  War,  had  left  Sicily  still  to  Car- 
thage. But  Ireland  is  far  more  vital  to  England  than  Sicily  was  to 
Carthage,  and  is  of  far  more  account  to  the  future  of  Europe  on  the 
ocean  than  the  possession  of  Sicily  was  to  the  future  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. 

Dealing  with  the  policy  of  alliances  and  isolation  that 
Britain  was  then  pursuing  against  Germany,  Casement  wrote 
in  March,  1913: 

Were  it  not  for  British  policy,  and  the  unhealthy  hope  it  proffers, 
France  would  ere  this  have  resigned  herself,  as  the  two  provinces 
have  done,  to  the  solution  offered  by  the  War  of  1870.  It  is  Eng- 
land and  English  ambition  that  begets  the  state  of  mind  responsible 
for  the  growth  of  armaments  that  now  overshadows  Continental 
civilization.  Humanity  hemmed  in  in  Central  Europe  by  a  forest 
of  bayonets  and  debarred  all  egress  to  the  light  of  a  larger  world  by 
a  forbidding  circle  of  dreadnoughts  is  called  to  Peace  Conferences 
and  arbitration  Treaties  by  the  very  Power  whose  fundamental 
maxim  of  rule  insures  war  as  the  normal  outlook  for  every  growing 
nation  of  the  Old  World. 

Writing  again  in  December,  1913,  Casement  sums  up  the 
situation  in  these  remarkable  words: 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  195 


Tbe  Irishman,  who,  in  the  belief  that  Home  Rule  has  come  or 
that  any  measure  of  Home  Rule  the  London  Parliament  will  offer 
can  be  a  substitute  for  his  country's  freedom,  joins  the  British  army 
or  navy,  is  a  voluntary  traitor  to  his  country.  His  place  is  to  prepare 
for  the  coming  of  the  German.  His  place  is  to  see  that,  when  a  vic- 
torious Germany  severs  Ireland  from  her  hereditary  exploiter,  the 
difficulties  of  settlement  shall  be  resolutely  faced  by  a  people  deter- 
mined to  justify  the  freedom  conferred  upon  them.  Even  were  Ger- 
many all  that  Englishmen  paint  her  and  Irishmen  only  to  change 
"owners,"  the  change  could  not  but  be  beneficial  to  Ireland.  Ger- 
many took  Alsace-Lorraine  by  force  from  France  in  1870,  and  has 
governed  those  provinces  for  forty  years  by  what  is  termed  "brute 
force,"  and  against  the  will  of  the  majority.  Yet  forty  years  of 
German  "tyranny"  have  brought  extraordinary  prosperity.  Strass- 
burg,  a  mean,  pent-in  garrison  town  under  the  Fr  a,  has  become 
a  great  and  beautiful  city  under  the  Germans,  and  the  population 
of  the  whole  annexed  territory  has  greatly  increased  in  the  period. 
Ireland,  in  the  same  forty  years  of  English  civilization,  has  lost 
nearly  one-fifth  of  her  population.  Her  pauper  rate,  her  lunacy  rate, 
her  sick  rate  —  consumption  particularly  —  have  all  gone  up;  her 
vitality  has  gone  down.  Her  ports,  save  one,  lie  idle;  her  rivers 
empty.    Every  way  out  lies  only  through  and  across  Britain. 

Enough  has  been  quoted  to  show  that  Casement,  long 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  had  seen  its  shadow  on  the 
horizon,  and  recognized  the  part  that  Ireland  would  or  should 
play  in  the  coming  conflict.  It  is  thus  a  curious  coincidence 
that  both  Casement  and  Carson,  two  men  of  the  most  widely 
different  type,  had  seen  the  same  vision  from  different  angles, 
the  one  appealing  to  Germany  to  assist  in  the  preservation 
of  the  Irish  nation,  the  other  making  wild  appeals  from  the 
roof-tops  to  the  Kaiser  to  go  over  to  Belfast  and  place  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  Carson  Volunteers  to  annihilate  the  British 
Empire  and  Redmond. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 


Casement  in  America 

AS  already  said,  Casement's  arrival  in  the  United 
States  as  an  envoy  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  preceded 
by  only  a  few  days  the  Massacre  of  Bachelor's  Walk 
in  Dublin.  Scarcely  had  this  atrocity  disappeared  from  the 
front  pages  of  the  daily  papers  than  the  world  rang  with 
the  clash  of  arms.  While  Casement  knew  that  the  war  was 
inevitable,  the  declarations  that  plunged  Europe  into  a 
carnival  of  slaughter  at  this  moment  came  as  a  sad  blow  to 
him,  for  it  upset  his  plans  for  the  arming  of  the  Volunteers. 
He  rapidly  recovered,  however,  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  no  time  was  to  be  lost  if  Ireland  were  to  be  saved.  He 
wrote  a  manifesto,  calling  on  the  Irish  people  to  refuse  to 
fight  for  England,  and  denouncing  the  policy  of  plunder  and 
treachery  by  which  England  had  forced  the  war.  He  reiter- 
ated his  previously  expressed  arguments,  showing  that  Eng- 
lish policy  had  been  planning  the  war  for  years  past,  and 
stating  that  his  personal  knowledge  of  the  workings  of  the 
Foreign  Office  made  his  assurance  doubly  sure.  He  made 
no  secret  of  the  fact  that  he  was  against  England  in  the 
war.  He  told  his  friends  that  he  had  time  and  again  warned 
the  English  whither  their  anti-German  policy  was  leading 
them,  and  that  they  had  merely  laughed. 

Casement  lost  no  time  in  getting  into  touch  with  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Irish  movement  in  America,  and  with  them  dis- 
cussed the  various  phases  of  the  new  situation.  It  was  agreed 
practically  unanimously  that  the  time  had  come  when  Ire- 
land had  either  to  make  another  fight  for  her  freedom  or  be 
swallowed  up  by  the  maelstrom  of  the  European  war.  He 
held  long  conferences  with  many  of  those  who  had  been  in 
the  Irish  movement  a  generation  before,  and  he  did  not  fail 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  197 


to  take  note  of  the  advice  which  they  tendered  to  him.  He 
paid  a  number  of  visits  to  Philadelphia  at  this  time,  and  was 
also  in  Boston.  At  both  of  these  places  he  addressed  large 
meetings,  and  was  everywhere  received  with  enthusiasm  by 
the  Irish  people.  He  was  a  good  and  a  very  convincing 
speaker,  and  his  thorough  grip  of  the  facts  of  the  situation 
lent  weight  to  his  words  and  enabled  him  to  press  home  his 
points. 

All  this  time  he  was  working  on  the  one  idea  of  getting 
together  funds  for  the  arming  and  general  equipment  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers.  He  looked  on  the  Volunteers  as  so  many 
of  his  children  —  noble  youths  who  had  banded  together,  in 
response  to  the  age-long  call  of  the  Gael,  to  fight  once  more 
for  Ireland's  freedom.  He  referred  to  the  Volunteers  always 
in  an  affectionate  manner,  and  his  whole-hearted  ambition 
was  to  see  the  Volunteers,  well  trained  and  fully  armed, 
marching  to  regain  the  independence  of  their  native  land. 

Appeal  after  appeal  to  the  men  of  Ireland  not  to  join  the 
English  army  followed.  He  denounced  Redmond  as  a  traitor 
to  his  country,  and  declared  that,  even  if  Germany  were  to 
lose  the  war,  she  would  again  spring  up  and  would  be  finally 
victorious.  His  greatest  anxiety  at  this  time,  so  far  as  events 
in  America  were  concerned,  was  lest  the  United  States  might 
be  drawn  into  the  struggle  on  the  side  of  the  British  Empire. 
He  was  well  aware  that  the  most  powerful  pleas  were  being 
made  by  the  English,  who  had,  only  a  few  years  previously, 
failed  in  their  efforts  to  make  an  alliance  with  America  —  an 
alliance  which,  had  it  been  consummated,  would  have  pre- 
cipitated the  United  States  into  the  world  war  before  the 
end  of  1914  had  been  reached.  Casement  did  everything 
that  lay  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  English  plans  from  suc- 
ceeding, and  the  vigorous  campaign  which  he  waged  had  un- 
doubtedly some  influence  on  the  situation. 

His  work  was  also  instrumental  in  gaining  large  sums  of 
money  for  the  arming  of  the  Volunteers.  This  money  was 
forwarded  to  Ireland,  and  was  there  used  for  the  purpose  of 
purchasing  arms  and  equipment  for  the  men,  organizing  the 


198   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Volunteer  forces,  and  carrying  on  the  campaign  against  the 
recruiting  sergeant.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  began  to 
make  his  plans  for  his  return  to  Ireland. 

He  hoped  to  get  back  to  Ireland  by  the  Derry  route. 
Once  in  his  own  country  again,  it  was  his  plan  to  place  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  Volunteers  and  to  do  everything  in 
his  power  to  train  them  into  efficient  soldiers.  He  knew  well 
that  to  return  to  Ireland  after  the  campaign  he  had  waged 
in  America  would  be  dangerous.  Casement,  however,  was  not 
the  man  to  shun  peril,  and  he  was  prepared  to  run  the  gaunt- 
let in  order  to  be  back  with  his  Volunteers  in  the  land  he  loved 
when  the  time  came  to  strike  another  blow  for  freedom. 

The  extracts  from  Casement's  own  writings  quoted  in  the 
preceding  chapter  amply  demonstrate  that  he  had  not  only 
foreseen  the  war  in  Europe,  but  had  also  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Ireland  would  have  to  take  sides  with  Germany 
in  that  struggle.  In  this  he  did  not  mean  that  Irishmen 
should  go  over  to  Germany  to  fight  for  that  country.  He 
opposed  such  an  idea  as  strenuously  as  he  opposed  the  re- 
cruiting of  Irishmen  for  the  English  forces.  He  believed 
that,  if  the  men  of  Ireland  had  to  do  any  fighting,  the  proper 
place  for  them  to  fight  was  on  their  own  soil.  But  he  also 
believed  that  Germany  would  be  able  to  assist  Ireland,  and 
that  Ireland's  opposition  to  England  would  be  of  the  greatest 
value  to  Germany.  He  had  expressed  these  ideas  in  his 
articles  written  some  months  before  the  war,  and  he  held 
to  them  just  as  strenuously  after  hostilities  had  begun. 

But,  if  Ireland  were  to  enlist  the  sympathy  and  assistance 
of  Germany,  it  was  obvious  that  someone  would  have  to  go 
to  Germany  to  urge  the  claims  of  Ireland  upon  the  Imperial 
Government  at  Berlin.  There  were  precedents  for  this 
course,  both  in  the  history  of  Ireland  and  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States.  Wolf  Tone  and  Nathan  Hale  had  both 
acted  in  similar  capacities  at  the  Court  of  France.  The 
desirability  of  the  Irish  having  an  accredited  representative 
in  Germany  was  so  obvious  that,  once  it  was  mentioned,  it 
only  remained  to  find  the  man  best  fitted  for  the  position. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  199 


With  his  long  diplomatic  career,  Roger  Casement  was 
certainly  ideally  fitted  to  represent  Ireland  at  Berlin.  An 
experienced  courtier,  he  was  thoroughly  conversant,  not  only 
with  the  causes  of  the  war,  but  with  the  claims  that  Ireland 
had  on  Germany  and  the  actual  position  of  affairs  both  in 
Ireland  and  among  the  Irish  in  America.  He  was  thus 
thoroughly  competent  to  undertake  the  mission,  and  it  was 
believed  that  he  would  be  able  to  do  far  more  good  to  Ire- 
land as  her  ambassador  in  Berlin  than  he  would  be  able  to 
do  in  Ireland,  where  he  would  be  in  constant  fear  of  arrest 
and  imprisonment. 

It  was  not  Casement  who  made  the  first  suggestion  that 
he  should  go  to  Berlin.  When  the  idea  was  mooted,  how- 
ever, he  fell  in  with  it  in  an  enthusiastic  manner.  His  only 
regret  was  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  be  with  his  Volun- 
teers, but  he  was  consoled  by  the  reflection  that  he  would 
not  only  be  able  to  enlist  aid  for  them  in  Germany,  but  that 
he  would  also  have  every  chance  of  being  with  them  when 
the  critical  time  came. 

There  were  many  reasons  why  Casement  should  go  to 
Germany.  It  was,  for  one  thing,  necessary  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  should  know  the  truth  regarding  the  situa- 
tion in  Ireland.  At  that  time  Mr.  Redmond  was  telling  the 
world  that  Ireland  was  contented,  that  the  men  of  Ireland 
were  rushing  to  enlist  under  the  Union  Jack,  and  that  the 
people  of  Ireland  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  were  as  bit- 
ter against  the  "Huns"  as  the  English  themselves.  The  Irish 
in  America  knew  that  these  statements  were  false.  They 
also  knew  that  the  English  Government  had  no  intention  of 
canying  out  their  promises  of  Home  Rule;  that  the  talk 
regarding  Home  Rule  was  merely  a  bluff  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  Redmond  was  probably  a  willing  party  to  the 
deception.  What  they  did  not  know,  however,  was  whether 
the  people  of  Germany  knew  these  things,  and  knew  also 
that  the  sympathy  of  the  Irish  people  was  not  on  the  side 
of  their  traditional  enemy. 

Another  possible  outcome  of  Casement's  mission  to  Ger- 


200   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


many  must  be  mentioned.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  there 
were  a  large  number  of  Irishmen  in  the  service  of  England, 
for  reasons  which  have  been  made  olear  in  another  chapter. 
Whatever  their  views,  these  men  would  have  no  other  op- 
tion but  to  carry  out  their  contracts  and  fight  against  the 
Germans  or  face  a  firing  squad  for  mutiny.  While  admitting 
that,  after  they  had  spent  a  few  years  in  the  English  army, 
the  majority  of  these  men  would  have  lost  all  sense  of  their 
duty  to  their  own  country,  there  was  also  a  possibility  that 
there  would  be  many  of  them  who  would,  if  they  had  the 
chance,  prefer  to  fight  the  battles  of  Ireland  than  those  of 
the  Empire.  It  was  inevitable  that  a  number  of  the  Irish 
soldiers  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  and  it 
was  part  of  Roger  Casement's  plan  to  preach  the  gospel  of 
true  nationality  to  these  men  and  form  an  Irish  Brigade.  It 
was  not  intended  that  these  men  should  fight  for  Germany. 
The  idea  was  to  get  them  discharged  from  the  prison  camps, 
have  them  dressed  in  an  Irish  uniform,  armed  and  equipped 
by  the  German  General  Staff,  and  transported  to  Ireland, 
where  they  would  be  able  to  join  hands  with  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers when  the  time  came  for  action.  It  was  hoped  by  these 
means  to  add  to  the  strength  of  the  forces  in  Ireland,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  rescue  a  number  of  Irishmen  who  had  been 
misled  by  circumstances  over  which  they  had  had  little  or 
no  control. 

While  the  Germans  were  to  be  asked  to  assist  Casement  in 
the  carrying  out  of  these  parts  of  the  plan,  there  was  one 
thing  that  they  were  not  asked  to  do,  and  which  it  is  well 
to  mention  in  view  of  the  lying  statements  that  were  circu- 
lated immediately  after  the  Rebellion,  particularly  by  Mr. 
Redmond  and  the  members  of  his  party.  The  Germans  were 
not  asked  to  assist  the  Volunteers  with  money.  Nor  did 
the  Germans  plan  the  Rebellion.  The  Rebellion  was  both 
planned  and  financed  in  Ireland.  The  plans  were  laid  in 
Ireland,  and  most  of  the  money  was  collected  in  Ireland. 
Neither  Casement  nor  any  other  Irishmen  ever  had  any 
intention  of  asking  the  Germans  to  make  plans  for  the  Re- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  201 


bellion.  The  Germans  had  quite  enough  planning  to  do 
without  undertaking  to  devise  ways  and  means  for  Ireland, 
more  especially  as  they  were  well  aware  that  the  Irish  had 
been  planning  a  rising  for  years  before  the  war  broke  out, 
and  that  they  had  a  far  better  understanding  of  the  needs 
of  the  situation  than  the  best-informed  of  the  Germans.  It 
can,  therefore,  be  stated  emphatically  that  the  statements 
that  the  rising  in  Dublin  was  a  German  "plot,'*  planned 
and  financed  in  Germany,  were  nothing  more  than  lies  in- 
spired by  those  who  had  a  reason  for  wishing  to  make  it 
appear  that  the  Rebellion  did  not  represent  the  wishes  of 
the  Irish  people,  but  was  engineered  by  a  small  group  of 
fanatics  under  the  influence  of  the  Germans. 

These  were  the  main  lines  of  the  mission  that  took  Roger 
Casement  to  Berlin.  That  he  was  going  to  Germany,  and 
the  reasons  of  his  going,  were  known  to  only  a  very  few 
until  he  had  actually  arrived  in  that  country.  The  British 
spy  system  in  America  was  so  active  that  it  was  only  by 
exercising  the  greatest  secrecy  that  there  was  any  chance 
of  the  Irish  ambassador  getting  to  his  destination.  The  de- 
cision for  his  departure  was  reached  early  in  October,  1914, 
and  announcement  was  made  that  he  intended  to  make  a 
lengthy  tour  in  the  Western  States.  This  information  was 
allowed  to  leak  out  in  a  manner  that  made  it  appear  authen- 
tic, and  had  the  effect  of  throwing  the  British  sleuths  off 
the  scent.  While  th*  spies  were  making  their  plans  to  watch 
Casement  in  the  west,  he  quietly  went  over  to  Hoboken  and 
boarded  a  steamer  bound  for  Norway.  Casement  landed  at 
Christiania  on  October  29,  and  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to 
Berlin.  There  he  was  received  by  the  German  Government, 
to  whom  he  explained  his  mission,  and  by  whom  he  was 
accorded  full  authority  to  carry  out  his  plans. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 


The  Plot  to  Kill  Casement 

THE  secret  of  Casement's  departure  leaked  out,  and 
was  quickly  revealed  to  the  English  authorities.  With 
an  alacrity  that  does  them  credit,  these  authorities 
made  arrangements  for  the  spoiling  of  the  plans  of  Case- 
ment in  Germany.  While  many  versions  of  the  actual  plot 
have  been  published  from  time  to  time,  the  full  facts  of  the 
matter  are  contained  only  in  Roger  Casement's  personal  let- 
ter addressed  to  Sir  Edward  Grey,  the  English  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  whose  policy  it  was  that  directly  pro- 
voked the  war.  Garbled  portions  of  this  letter  appeared  in 
many  of  the  newspapers  printed  in  New  York  City,  but 
the  only  complete  version  was  that  which  appeared  in  The 
Gaelic  American  of  July  10,  1915.  As  this  communication  is 
of  special  historical  value,  and  as  it  also  gives  in  ample  de- 
tail the  facts  of  the  matter  as  stated  by  Casement  himself, 
it  is  here  presented  in  full.  It  was  mailed  from  The  Hague, 
in  a  registered  envelope,  on  February  1,  1915,  and  reads  as 
follows : 

Sir  —  I  observe  that  some  discussion  has  taken  place  in  the  House 
of  Lords  on  the  subject  of  the  pension  I  voluntarily  ceased  to  draw 
when  I  set  out  to  learn  what  might  be  the  intentions  of  the  German 
Government  in  regard  to  Ireland. 

In  the  course  of  that  discussion  I  understand  that  Lord  Crewe 
observed  that  "Sir  Roger  Casement's  action  merited  a  sensible  pun- 
ishment." 

The  question  raised  thus  as  to  my  action  and  your  publicly  sug- 
gested punishment  of  it  I  propose  discussing  here  and  now,  since 
the  final  proof  of  the  actual  punishment  you  sought  in  secret  to  in- 
flict upon  me  is,  at  length,  in  my  possession. 

It  is  true  I  was  aware  of  your  intentions  from  the  first  day  I  set 
foot  in  Norway  three  months  ago;  but  it  has  taken  time  to  compel 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  203 


your  agent  there  to  furnish  the  written  proof  of  the  conspiracy  then 
set  on  foot  against  me  by  His  Majesty's  Government. 

Let  me  first  briefly  define  my  action  before  proceeding  to  contrast 
it  with  your  own. 

The  question  between  the  British  Government  and  myself  has 
never  been,  as  you  are  fully  aware,  a  matter  of  a  pension,  of  a 
reward,  a  decoration. 

I  served  the  British  Government  faithfully  and  loyally  as  long  as 
it  was  possible  for  me  to  do  so,  and,  when  it  became  impossible,  I 
resigned.  When  later  it  became  impossible  for  me  to  use  the  pen- 
sion assigned  me  by  law  I  voluntarily  abandoned  that  income  as  I 
had  previously  resigned  the  post  from  which  it  was  derived,  and  as  I 
now  proceed  to  divest  myself  of  the  honors  and  distinctions  that  at  va- 
rious times  have  been  conferred  upon  me  by  His  Majesty's  Government. 

I  came  to  Europe  from  the  United  States  last  October  in  order  to 
make  sure  that,  whatever  might  be  the  course  of  this  war,  my  own 
country,  Ireland,  should  suffer  from  it  the  minimum  of  harm. 

The  view  I  held  was  made  sufficiently  clear  in  an  open  letter  I 
wrote  on  the  17th  of  September  last  in  New  York,  and  sent  to 
Ireland  for  public  distribution  among  my  countrymen.  I  append  a 
printed  copy  of  that  letter.  It  defines  my  personal  standpoint 
clearly  enough  and  expresses  the  views  I  held,  and  hold,  on  an  Irish- 
man's duty  to  his  country  in  this  crisis  of  world  affairs.  Soon  after 
writing  that  letter  I  set  out  for  Europe. 

To  save  Ireland  from  some  of  the  calamities  of  war  was  worth 
the  loss  to  myself  of  pension  and  honors,  and  was  even  worth  the 
commission  of  an  act  of  technical  "treason." 

I  decided  to  take  all  the  risks  and  to  accept  all  the  penalties 
the  law  might  attach  to  my  action.  I  did  not,  however,  bargain  for 
risks  and  penalties  that  lay  outside  the  law  as  far  as  my  own  action 
lay  outside  the  field  of  moral  turpitude. 

In  other  words,  while  I  reckoned  with  British  law  and  legal  penal- 
ties and  accepted  the  sacrifice  of  income,  position,  and  reputation  as 
prices  I  must  pay,  I  did  not  reckon  with  the  British  Government. 

I  was  prepared  to  face  charges  in  a  Court  of  Law;  I  was  not  pre- 
pared to  meet  waylaying,  kidnapping,  suborning  of  dependents  or 
"knocking  on  the  head";  in  fine,  all  the  expedients  your  representa- 
tive in  a  neutral  country  invoked  when  he  became  aware  of  my 
presence  there. 

For  the  criminal  conspiracy  that  Mr.  M.  de  C.  Findlay,  H.  B.  M. 


204   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Minister  to  the  Court  of  Norway,  entered  into  on  the  30th  of  Octo- 
ber last,  in  the  British  Legation  at  Christiania,  with  the  Norwegian 
subject,  my  dependent,  Eivind  Adler  Christensen,  involved  all 
these  things  and  more.  It  involved  not  a  mere  lawless  attack  upon 
myself,  for  which  the  British  Minister  promised  my  follower  the  sum 
of  £5000  [$25,000],  but  it  involved  a  breach  of  international  law, 
for  which  the  British  Minister  in  Norway  promised  this  Norwegian 
subject  full  immunity. 

On  the  29th  of  October,  last  year,  I  landed  at  Christiania,  com- 
ing from  America. 

Within  a  few  hours  of  my  landing  the  man  I  had  engaged,  and  in 
whom  I  reposed  trust,  was  accosted  by  one  of  the  secret  service 
agents  of  the  British  Minister  and  carried  off,  in  a  private  motor 
car,  to  the  British  Legation,  where  the  first  attempt  was  made  on 
his  honor  to  induce  him  to  be  false  to  me. 

Your  agent  in  the  Legation  that  afternoon  professed  ignorance  of 
who  I  was  and  sought,  as  he  put  it,  merely  to  find  out  my  identity 
and  movements. 

Failing  in  this,  the  first  attempt  to  obtain  satisfaction,  Adler 
Christensen  was  assailed  the  next  day,  the  30th  of  October,  by  a 
fresh  agent  and  received  an  invitation  again  to  visit  the  British  Lega- 
tion, "where  he  would  hear  something  good." 

This,  the  second  interview,  held  in  the  early  forenoon,  was  with 
the  Minister  himself. 

Mr.  Findlay  came  quickly  to  the  point.  The  ignorance,  assumed 
or  actual,  of  the  previous  day,  as  to  my  identity,  was  now  discarded. 
He  confessed  thai  he  knew  me,  but  that  he  did  not  know  where  I 
was  going  to,  what  I  intended  doing,  or  what  might  be  the  specific 
end  I  had  in  view. 

It  was  enough  for  him  that  I  was  an  Irish  Nationalist. 

He  admitted  that  the  British  Government  had  no  evidence  of  any- 
thing wrong  done  or  contemplated  by  me  that  empowered  them 
either  morally  or  lawfully  to  interfere  with  my  movements.  Bui  he 
was  bent  on  doing  so.  Therefore,  he  baldly  invoked  lawless  methods, 
and  suggested  to  my  dependent  that  were  I  to  "disappear,"  it  would 
be  "a  very  good  thing  for  whoever  brought  it  about." 

He  was  careful  to  point  out  that  nothing  could  happen  to  the 
perpetrator  of  the  crime,  since  my  presence  in  Christiania  was  known 
only  to  the  British  Government,  and  that  Government  would  screen 
and  provide  for  those  responsible  for  my  disappearance. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  205 


He  indicated,  quite  plainly,  the  method  to  be  employed,  by  assur- 
ing Adler  Christensen  that  whoever  "knocked  him  on  the  head  need 
not  do  any  work  for  the  rest  of  his  life,"  and  proceeded  to  apply  the 
moral  by  asking  Christensen,  "I  suppose  you  would  not  mind  hav- 
ing an  easy  time  of  it  for  the  rest  of  your  days?" 

My  faithful  follower  concealed  the  anger  he  felt  at  this  sugges- 
tion, and  continued  the  conversation  in  order  to  become  more  fully 
aware  of  the  plot  that  might  be  devised  against  my  safety.  He 
pointed  out  that  I  had  not  only  been  very  kind  to  him  but  that  I 
"trusted  him  implicitly." 

It  was  on  this  "implicit  trust"  Mr.  Findlay  then  proceeded  to 
build  the  whole  framework  of  his  conspiracy  against  my  life,  my 
liberty,  the  public  law  of  Norway,  and  the  happiness  of  the  young 
man  he  sought  to  tempt  by  monstrous  bribes  to  the  commission  of  a 
dastardly  crime  against  his  admitted  benefactor. 

If  I  could  be  intercepted,  cut  off,  "disappear,"  no  one  would 
know  and  no  questions  could  be  asked,  as  there  was  no  Government 
save  the  British  Government  knew  of  my  presence  in  Norway,  and 
there  was  no  authority  I  could  appeal  to  for  help,  while  that  Govern- 
ment would  shield  the  individual  implicated  and  provide  handsomely 
for  his  future.  Such,  in  Mr.  Findlay 's  words  (recorded  by  me),  was 
the  proposition  put  by  His  Majesty's  Minister  before  the  young  man 
who  had  been  enticed  for  this  purpose  into  the  British  Legation. 

That  this  man  was  faithful  to  me  and  to  the  law  of  his  country 
was  a  triumph  of  Norwegian  integrity  over  the  ignoble  inducement 
proferred  to  him  by  the  richest  and  most  powerful  Government  in 
the  world  to  be  false  to  both. 

Having  thus  outlined  his  project,  Mr.  Findlay  invited  Christensen 
to  "think  the  matter  over  and  return  at  3  o'clock  if  you  are  disposed 
to  go  on  with  it." 

He  handed  him  in  Norwegian  paper  money  twenty-five  kroner 
"just  to  pay  your  taxicab  fares,"  and  dismissed  him. 

Feeling  a  not  unnatural  interest  in  these  proposals  as  to  how  I 
should  be  disposed  of,  I  instructed  the  man  it  was  thus  sought  to 
bribe  to  return  to  the  British  Legation  at  3  o'clock  and  seemingly 
to  fall  in  with  the  wishes  of  your  Envoy  Entraordinary. 

I  advised  him,  however,  for  the  sake  of  appearance  to  "sell  me 
dear"  and  to  secure  the  promise  of  a  very  respectable  sum  for  so 
very  disreputable  an  act. 

Christensen,  who  has  been  a  sailor  and  naturally  has  seen  some 


206   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


strange  company,  assured  me  he  was  perfectly  at  home  with  His 
Majesty's  representative. 

He  returned  to  the  Legation  at  3  o'clock,  and  remained  closeted 
with  Mr.  Findlay  until  nearly  5  p.m.  The  full  record  of  their  con- 
versation will  be  laid  before  you,  and  others,  in  due  course. 

My  follower  pretended  to  fall  in  with  the  British  Minister's  proj- 
ects, only  stipulating  for  a  good  sum  to  be  paid  in  return  for  his 
treachery.  Mr.  Findlay  promised,  on  his  "word  of  honor"  (such  was 
the  quaint  phraseology  employed  to  guarantee  this  transaction) 
that  Christensen  should  receive  £5000  sterling  whenever  he  should 
deliver  me  into  the  hands  of  the  British  authorities. 

If,  in  the  course  of  this  kidnapping  process,  I  should  come  to  harm 
or  personal  injury  be  done  me,  then  no  question  would  be  asked 
and  full  immunity  guaranteed  the  kidnapper. 

My  follower  pointed  out  that,  as  I  was  leaving  that  evening  for 
Copenhagen,  having  already  booked  my  compartment  in  the  mail 
train,  he  would  not  have  any  immediate  chance  of  executing  the 
commission. 

Mr.  Findlay  agreed  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  defer  the  at- 
tempt until  some  favorable  opportunity  offered  of  decoying  me  down 
to  the  coast  "anywhere  on  the  Skaggerrack  or  North  Sea,"  where 
British  warships  might  be  in  waiting  to  seize  me. 

He  intrusted  my  dependent  with  the  further  commission  of  pur- 
loining my  correspondence  with  my  supposed  associates  in  America 
and  Ireland,  particularly  in  Ireland,  so  that  they  too  might  par- 
ticipate in  the  "sensible  punishment"  being  devised  for  me. 

He  ordained  a  system  of  secret  correspondence  with  himself  Chris- 
tensen should  employ,  and  wrote  out  the  confidential  address  in 
Christian ia  to  which  he  was  to  communicate  the  results  of  his  efforts 
to  purloin  my  papers  and  to  report  on  my  plans. 

This  address  in  Christiania  was  written  down  by  Mr.  Findlay  on 
a  half  sheet  of  Legation  note  paper  in  printed  characters.  This 
precaution  was  adopted,  he  said,  "so  as  to  prevent  the  handwriting 
being  traced." 

This  document,  along  with  one  hundred  crowns  in  Norwegian 
paper  money  given  by  Mr.  Findlay  as  an  earnest  of  more  to  follow, 
was  at  once  brought  to  me  with  an  account  of  the  proceedings. 

As  I  was  clearly  in  a  position  of  some  danger,  I  changed  my  plans 
and,  instead  of  proceeding  to  Copenhagen  as  I  had  intended  doing, 
I  decided  to  alter  my  procedure  and  route. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  207 


It  was,  then,  with  this  secret  knowledge  of  the  full  extent  of  the 
crime  plotted  by  your  Representative  in  Norway  against  me  that  I 
left  Christiania  on  the  30th  of  October. 

The  rest  of  the  story  need  not  take  so  long  in  the  telling. 

You  are  fully  aware  of  most  of  the  details,  as  you  were  in  con- 
stant touch  with  your  agent  both  by  cable  and  dispatch. 

You  are  also  aware  of  the  declaration  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government,  issued  on  November  20th  last,  in  reply  to  the  inquiry 
I  addressed  to  them. 

The  British  Government,  both  by  press  reports  and  by  direct 
agents,  had  charged  Germany  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Ireland,  with  the  commission  of  atrocious  crimes  in  Belgium  and 
had  warned  the  Irish  people  that  their  fate  would  be  the  same,  did 
Germany  win  this  war. 

Your  Government  sought  to  frighten  Irishmen  into  a  predatory 
raid  upon  a  people  who  had  never  injured  them  and  to  persuade 
them  by  false  charges  that  this  was  their  duty. 

I  sought  not  only  a  guarantee  of  German  goodwill  to  Ireland,  but 
to  relieve  my  countrymen  from  the  apprehensions  this  campaign  of 
calumny  was  designed  to  provoke  and  as  far  as  possible  to  dissuade 
them  from  embarking  in  an  immoral  conflict  against  a  people  who 
had  never  wronged  Ireland.  That  Declaration  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment, issued  as  I  know  in  all  sincerity,  is  the  justification  for  my 
"treason."  The  justification  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment and  its  Minister  at  Christiania,  begun  before  I  had  set  foot 
on  German  soil  in  a  country  where  I  had  a  perfect  right  to  be  and 
conducted  by  means  of  the  lowest  forms  of  attempted  bribery  and 
corruption,  I  leave  you,  sir,  to  discover. 

You  will  not  discover  it  in  the  many  interviews  Mr.  Findlay  had, 
during  the  months  of  November  and  December  last,  at  his  own  seek- 
ing, with  my  faithful  follower.  The  correspondence  between  them 
in  the  cipher  the  Minister  had  arranged  tells  its  own  story. 

These  interviews  furnished  matter  that  in  due  course  I  shall  make 
public.  What  passed  between  your  agent  and  mine  on  these  occa- 
sions you  are  fully  aware  of,  and  you  were  the  directing  power 
throughout  the  whole  proceeding. 

Your  object,  as  Mr.  Findlay  frankly  avowed  to  the  man  he  thought 
he  had  bought,  was  to  take  my  life  with  public  infamy  —  mine  was 
to  expose  your  design  and  to  do  so  through  the  very  agent  you  had 
yourself  singled  out  for  the  purpose  and  had  sought  to  corrupt  to  sn 
act  of  singular  infamy. 


208   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


On  one  occasion,  in  response  to  my  follower's  pretended  dissatis- 
faction with  the  amount  offered  for  betraying  me,  you  authorized 
your  agent  to  increase  the  sum  to  £10,000.  I  have  a  full  record  of 
the  conversations  held  and  of  the  pledges  proffered  in  your  name. 

On  two  occasions,  during  these  prolonged  bargainings,  your  Min- 
ister gave  Adler  Christensen  gifts  of  "earnest  money."  Once  it  was 
five  hundred  crowns  in  Norwegian  currency;  the  next  time  a  similar 
sum,  partly  in  Norwegian  money  and  partly  in  English  gold.  On 
one  of  these  occasions,  to  be  precise,  on  the  7th  of  December  last, 
Mr.  Findlay  handed  Adler  Christensen  the  key  of  the  back  entrance 
of  the  British  Legation,  so  that  he  might  go  and  come  unobserved 
and  at  all  hours. 

I  propose  returning  this  key  in  person  to  the  donor  and  along  with 
it  the  various  sums  so  anxiously  bestowed  upon  my  follower. 

The  stories  told  to  Mr.  Findlay  at  these  interviews  should  not 
have  deceived  a  schoolboy.  All  the  pretended  evidence  of  my  plans 
and  intentions  Adler  Christensen  produced, — the  bogus  letters,  ficti- 
tious maps  and  charts  and  other  incitements  to  Mr.  Findlay's  appe- 
tite for  the  incredible,  —  were  part  of  my  necessary  plan  of  self-defense 
to  lay  bare  the  conspiracy  you  were  engaged  in  and  to  secure  that 
convincing  proof  of  it  I  now  hold. 

It  was  not  until  the  3rd  ultimo  that  Mr.  Findlay  committed  him- 
self to  give  my  protestor  the  duly  signed  and  formal  pledge  of  reward 
and  immunity,  in  tlie  name  of  Hie  British  Government,  for  the 
crime  he  was  being  instigated  to  commit,  that  is  now  in  my  possession. 

I  transmit  you  herewith  a  photograph  of  this  document. 

At  a  date  compatible  with  my  own  security  against  the  clandes- 
tine guarantees  and  immunities  of  the  British  Minister  in  Norway  I 
shall  proceed  to  lay  before  the  legitimate  authorities  in  that  country 
the  original  document  and  the  evidence  in  my  possession  that  throws 
light  on  tin;  proceedings  of  Ills  Majesty's  Government. 

To  that  Government,  through  you,  sir,  I  now  beg  to  return  the 
insignia  of  the  Most  Distinguished  Order  of  St.  Michael  and  St. 
George,  the  Coronation  Medal  of  his  Majesty  King  George  V,  and  any 
other  medal,  honor,  or  distinction  conferred  upon  me  by  His  Majesty's 
Government,  of  which  it  is  possible  for  me  to  divest  myself. 

I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

The  Right  Honorable,  RoGER  Cabbment 

Sir  E.  Grey,  Bart.,  K.  G.,  M.  P. 
London. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  209 


The  document  referred  to,  a  photographic  facsimile  of  which 
was  inclosed  with  the  letter,  follows: 

BRITISH  LEGATION 
Christiana,  Norway 

On  behalf  of  the  British  Government  I  promise  that  if  through 
information  given  by  Adler  Christensen,  Sir  Roger  Casement  be 
captured  either  with  or  without  his  companions,  the  said  Adler 
Christensen  is  to  receive  from  the  British  Government  the  sum  of 
£5000  to  be  paid  as  he  may  desire. 

Adler  Christensen  is  also  to  enjoy  personal  immunity  and  to  be 
given  a  passage  to  the  United  States  should  he  desire  it. 

M.  de  C.  Find  lay, 
H.  B.  M.  Minister. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 


Straws  on  the  Stream 

THE  events  which  followed  the  declaration  of  war 
came  with  startling  rapidity.  From  the  day  when 
Redmond  showed  himself  in  the  guise  of  an  English 
Imperialist,  rather  than  that  of  an  Irish  Nationalist,  prepara- 
tions became  active  for  the  armed  protest  of  the  nation.  It 
had  been  the  belief  in  Ireland,  since  shown  well  founded,  that 
it  was  never  the  intention  of  the  British  Government  to  keep 
to  its  promises.  Therefore,  the  Volunteers  had  been  called 
into  being.  Redmond  made  tremendous  efforts  for  some 
months  to  ignore  their  existence,  but  it  was  increasingly 
evident  that  the  British  Government  was  now  worried  about 
the  Volunteers,  and  Redmond  received  orders  to  put  an  end 
to  them. 

Redmond's  attempt  to  capture  and  disarm  the  Volunteers 
and  its  failure  has  been  already  described.  The  crisis  was 
precipitated  when  Redmond  made  a  public  appeal  to  the 
Volunteers  in  which  he  told  them  that  they  were  cowards  if 
they  did  not  join  the  British  army,  either  individually  or  in  a 
body,  and  fight  for  the  Empire  against  the  Teutons.  By 
getting  the  Volunteers  into  the  firing  lines  the  British  Govern- 
ment would  have  some  excellent  fighting  material,  and  at  the 
same  time  would  have  cleared  a  dangerous  force  out  of  Ire- 
land, leaving  the  country  destitute  of  men  able  to  make  a 
fight  for  freedom.  Redmond  would  also  have  been  rid  of  a 
number  of  critics  who  had  assumed  to  themselves  the  task  of 
telling  the  people  facts  that  were  not  to  the  liking  of  the 
leader  of  the  Parliamentarians.  It  would  have  been  an 
excellent  coup  had  it  succeeded,  but  it  was  too  transparent  to 
deceive  the  Irish  people. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


211 


The  Provisional  Committee  of  the  Volunteers  —  the  original 
governing  body  —  issued  the  following  proclamation  to  the 
Volunteers  on  September  25,  1914: 

TO  THE  IRISH  VOLUNTEERS 

Ten  months  ago  a  Provisional  Committee  commenced  the  Irish 
Volunteer  movement  with  the  sole  purpose  of  securing  and  defend- 
ing the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Irish  people.  The  movement  on 
these  lines,  though  thwarted  and  opposed  for  a  time,  obtained  the 
support  of  the  Irish  nation.  When  the  Volunteer  movement  had 
become  the  main  factor  in  the  national  question,  Mr.  Redmond 
decided  to  acknowledge  it  and  to  endeavor  to  bring  it  under  his 
control. 

Three  months  ago  he  put  forward  the  claim  to  send  twenty-five 
nominees  to  the  Provisional  Committee  of  the  Irish  Volunteers.  He 
threatened,  if  the  claim  was  not  conceded,  to  proceed  to  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  Irish  Volunteer  organization. 

It  is  clear  that  the  proposal  to  throw  the  country  into  turmoil, 
and  to  destroy  the  chances  of  a  Home  Rule  measure  in  the  near 
future,  must  have  been  forced  upon  Mr.  Redmond.  Already  ignor- 
ing the  Irish  Volunteers  as  a  factor  in  the  national  position,  Mr. 
Redmond  had  consented  to  a  dismemberment  of  Ireland,  which 
could  be  made  permanent  by  the  same  agencies  that  forced  him  to 
accept  it  as  temporary.  He  was  now  prepared  to  risk  another  dis- 
ruption and  the  wreck  of  the  cause  intrusted  to  him. 

The  Provisional  Committee,  while  recognizing  that  the  responsi- 
bility in  that  case  would  be  altogether  Mr.  Redmond's,  decided  to 
risk  the  lesser  evil  and  to  admit  his  nominees  to  sit  and  act  on  the 
committee.  The  committee  made  no  representations  as  to  the  per- 
sons to  be  nominated,  and,  when  the  nominations  were  received,  no 
question  was  asked  as  to  how  far  Mr.  Redmond  had  fulfilled  his 
public  undertaking  to  nominate  "representative  men  from  different 
parts  of  the  country."  Mr.  Redmond's  nominees  were  admitted 
purely  and  simply  as  his  nominees  and  without  cooption. 

Mr.  Redmond,  addressing  a  body  of  Irish  Volunteers  last  Sunday, 
has  now  announced  for  the  Irish  Volunteers  a  policy  and  programme 
fundamentally  at  variance  with  their  own  published  and  accepted 
aims  and  pledges,  but  with  which  his  nominees  are,  of  course,  identi- 
fied.   He  has  declared  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  to 


212   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


take  foreign  service  under  a  government  which  is  not  Irish.  He 
has  made  this  announcement  without  consulting  the  Provisional 
Committee,  the  Volunteers  themselves,  or  the  people  of  Ireland,  to 
whose  service  alone  they  are  devoted. 

Having  thus  disregarded  the  Irish  Volunteers  and  their  solemn 
engagements,  Mr.  Redmond  is  no  longer  entitled,  through  his  nomi- 
nees, to  any  place  in  the  administration  and  guidance  of  the  Irish 
Volunteer  organization.  Those  who,  by  virtue  of  Mr.  Redmond's 
nomination,  have,  therefore,  been  admitted  to  act  on  the  Provisional 
Committee,  accordingly  cease  henceforth  to  belong  to  that  body, 
and  from  this  date  until  the  holding  of  an  Irish  Volunteer  Conven- 
tion the  Provisional  Committee  consists  of  only  those  whom  it 
comprised  before  the  admission  of  Mr.  Redmond's  nominees. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Provisional  Committee  we  shall 
propose: 

1.  —  To  call  a  Convention  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  for  Wednesday, 

November  25,  1914,  the  anniversary  of  the  inaugural  meeting 
of  the  Irish  Volunteers  in  Dublin. 

2.  —  To  reaffirm,  without  qualification,  the  manifesto  proposed  and 

adopted  at  the  inaugural  meeting. 

3.  —  To  oppose  any  diminution  of  the  measure  of  Irish  self-govern- 

ment which  now  exists  as  a  statute  on  paper,  and  which 
would  not  have  reached  that  stage  but  for  the  Irish  Volunteers. 

4.  —  To  repudiate  any  undertaking,  by  whomsoever  given,  to  con- 

sent to  the  legislative  dismemberment  of  Ireland,  and  to  pro- 
test against  the  attitude  of  the  present  government,  which, 
under  the  pretense  that  "Ulster  cannot  be  coerced,"  avow 
themselves  prepared  to  coerce  the  Nationalists  of  Ulster. 

5.  —  To  declare  that  Ireland  cannot,  with  honor  and  safety,  take  part 

in  foreign  quarrels  otherwise  than  through  the  free  action 
of  a  National  Government  of  her  own;  and  to  repudiate  the 
claim  of  any  man  to  offer  up  the  blood  and  lives  of  the  sons 
of  Irish  men  and  women  to  the  services  of  the  British  Em- 
pire while  no  National  Government  which  could  speak  and 
act  for  the  people  of  Ireland  is  allowed  to  exist. 

6.  —  To  demand  that  the  present  system  of  governing  Ireland 

through  Dublin  Castle  and  the  British  military  power,  a 
system  responsible  for  the  recent  outrages  in  Dublin,  be 
abolished  without  delay,  and  a  National  Government  forth- 
with established  in  its  place. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  213 


The  signatories  to  this  statement  are  the  great  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  Provisional  Committee  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  apart 
from  the  nominees  of  Mr.  Redmond,  who  are  no  longer  members  of 
the  Committee.  We  regret  that  the  absence  of  Sir  Roger  Casement 
in  America  prevents  him  from  being  a  signatory  with  us. 


(Signed)  Eoin  MacNeill,  Chairman,  Provisional  Committee 


BULMER  HOBSON 

41  Kildare  Street,  Dublin. 
September  25,  19U. 

Following  this  declaration  the  Convention  of  the  Irish 
Volunteers  was  held  in  the  Abbey  Theatre,  Abbey  Street, 
Dublin,  on  November  14,  1914.  The  Convention  was  attended 
by  representatives  of  the  Volunteers  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  the  proposals  detailed  in  the  above  statement 
were  unanimously  endorsed.  From  that  moment  Redmond's 
control  of  the  Volunteers  ceased.  The  entire  Provisional 
Committee  was  elected  as  a  Permanent  Committee  by  the 
delegates  to  the  Convention,  and  Redmond  was  left  with  a 
small  and  rapidly  dwindling  section  of  men,  who  professed 
to  owe  allegiance  to  him  and  his  Party.  These  who  preferred 
to  remain  with  Redmond,  chose  to  be  known  as  the  National 
Volunteers,  while  the  Volunteers  led  by  Eoin  MacNeill  and 
the  Committee  were  known  as  the  Irish  Volunteers. 

That  Redmond  did  not  approve  of  this  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Volunteer  Committee  scarcely  needs  to  be  mentioned. 
He  and  his  party  immediately  denounced  the  Irish  Volunteers 
as  traitors,  factionists,  and  Sinn  Feiners.  The  use  of  the  last- 
mentioned  supposedly  opprobrious  term  was  very  subtle.  It 


Ua  Rathghaille,  Treasurer 
Thomas  MacDonagh 
J.  Plunkett 

PlARAS  BeASLAI 

Michael  J.  Judge 

Peter  Paul  Macken,  Ex-Alderman 

Sean  MacGiobium 

P.  H.  Pearse 

Padraic  O'Riain 


Eamonn  Martin 
conchubhair  o'colbaird 
Eamonn  Ceannt 
Sean  MacDiarmada 
Seamus  O'Conchubhair 
'Liam  Mellows 
l.  colm  o'lochlainn 
'Liam  Ua  Gogan 
Peter  White 


214   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


was  intended  to  make  the  English  people  believe  that  those 
who  disagreed  with  Redmond  were  either  Fenians  or  cranks, 
or  both.  This  action  had,  however,  one  rather  curious  result. 
From  that  time  on  the  Irish  Volunteers  were  known  in 
England  as  the  Sinn  Feiners,  and,  when  the  rebellion  broke 
out,  the  British  press  promptly  tacked  on  to  it  the  name 
"Sinn  Fein."  Thus  it  was  that  the  rebellion  came  to  be 
known  as  the  "Sinn  Fein  Rebellion." 

With  a  view  to  winning  the  support  of  the  Volunteers  for 
the  British  army  in  the  fighting  line,  Redmond  had  taken 
particular  pains  to  tell  the  Irish  people  what  an  awful  fate 
would  be  theirs  if  the  Germans  should  ever  set  foot  in  Ireland; 
that  the  Gaelic  language,  about  which  he  had  previously 
shown  himself  singularly  unconcerned,  would  be  prohibited; 
that  the  churches  would  be  razed  to  the  ground,  and  all 
priests  and  nuns  would  be  slaughtered  and  outraged  by  the 
savages  from  Teutonland. 

On  November  29,  however,  the  German  Government  issued 
the  following  statement,  which  was  published  all  over  Ireland 
in  spite  of  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  British  to  suppress  it: 

Sir  Roger  Casement  was  received  at  the  Foreign  Office  and  pointed 
out  statements  which  had  been  published  in  Ireland,  apparently  with 
the  authority  of  the  British  Government  behind  them,  that  German 
victory  would  inflict  great  loss  upon  the  Irish  people,  whose  homes, 
churches,  priests,  and  lands  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  an  invad- 
ing army  actuated  only  by  motives  of  pillage  and  conquest.  Re- 
cent utterances  of  Redmond  and  announcements  of  the  English 
press  in  Ireland  to  this  effect,  widely  circulated,  have  caused  a  nat- 
ural apprehension  among  Irishmen  concerning  the  German  attitude 
towards  Ireland. 

In  reply  the  Acting  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Office,  by  Order  of 
the  Imperial  Chancellor,  officially  declared  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment repudiates  the  evil  intentions  attributed  to  it,  and  only  desires 
the  welfare  of  the  Irish  people  and  country. 

Germany  would  never  invade  Ireland  with  a  view  to  its  conquest, 
or  the  overthrow  of  any  native  institutions  of  that  country.  Should 
fortune  ever  bring  German  troops  to  Ireland's  shores  they  would 
land  there,  not  as  an  army  of  invaders  to  pillage  and  destroy,  but 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  215 


as  forces  of  a  nation  inspired  by  goodwill  towards  the  country  and 
people  for  whom  Germany  desires  only  national  prosperity  and 
freedom. 

Almost  coincident  with  this  official  statement  from  the 
German  Government,  there  appeared  throughout  Ireland  the 
letter  sent  to  the  Irish  people  by  Sir  Roger  Casement  before 
he  left  the  United  States.  The  difficulty  of  getting  this 
letter  to  the  people  wTas  considerable,  but  it  eventually  reached 
them.    The  following  is  the  text  of  the  communication: 

Let  Irish  men  and  boys  stay  in  Ireland.  Their  duty  is  clear  be- 
fore God  and  before  man.  We,  as  a  people,  have  no  quarrel  with  the 
German  people.  Germany  has  never  wronged  Ireland,  and  we  owe 
her  more  than  one  debt  of  gratitude. 

It  was  not  a  German  steamship  company  that,  last  summer, 
with  the  assent  of  the  government  making  the  contract,  broke  pub- 
lic faith  with  the  Irish  people  and  abandoned  its  pledged  service 
with  the  port  of  Cork.  But  it  was  a  German  steamship  company 
that  tried  to  make  good  the  breach  of  public  trust  and  the  injury 
to  Irish  trade  that  the  Cunard  Company  had  committed,  and  the 
British  Postmaster-General,  Admiralty  and  Board  of  Trade  had  con- 
nived at.  And  it  was  another  British  department  that  made  repre- 
sentation at  Berlin  in  behalf  of  English  trade  jealousy  and  caused 
the  German  Emperor  to  intervene  to  induce  the  Hamburg-American 
line  to  substitute  Southampton  for  Queenstown  —  a  British  for  an 
Irish  port.  The  hated  German  was  welcome  when  he  came  to  an 
English  port  —  his  help  and  enterprise  was  out  of  place  when  directed 
to  assisting  Irishmen  to  better  means  of  intercourse  with  the  outside 
world. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 


Planning  the  Rising 

AT  a  secret  session  of  the  Committee  of  the  Irish 
Volunteers,  held  in  Dublin  on  May  29,  1915,  with 
Professor  Eoin  MacNeill  presiding,  a  resolution  was 
proposed  by  Bulmer  HoVjson  to  the  effect  that  the  Irish 
Volunteers  declare  themselves  in  favor  of  immediate  insurrec- 
tion. There  was  a  full  meeting  of  the  committee,  as  elected 
by  the  Volunteers  at  the  annual  Convention,  and  the  question 
was  debated  at  very  considerable  length,  opinion  being  about 
equally  divided.  The  motion  was  decided  in  the  negative 
only  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  chairman. 

Long  before  this  time  it  had  become  an  acknowledged  fact 
that  the  Irish  Volunteers  had  only  three  possible  courses 
which  they  could  pursue.  They  had,  first,  the  option  of 
disbanding  voluntarily  and  giving  up  their  arms  and,  by  so 
doing,  of  facing  the  certainty  of  being  conscripted  into  the 
British  army;  secondly,  they  could  submit  to  being  disarmed 
by  order  of  the  British  Government  with  a  like  result,  or, 
finally,  they  could  fight  for  Irish  freedom  on  their  own  soil. 
They  had  long  before  decided  that  they  would  not  disband 
voluntarily.  To  do  so  would  be  an  abject  surrender  of  all 
the  objects  for  which  they  were  organized.  To  submit  to 
being  disarmed  would  be  only  a  shade  worse,  and  would 
have  branded  them  cowards  for  all  future  time.  It  may  be 
said  that  they  had  the  option  of  joining  the  British  army  and 
covering  themselves  with  glory  and  death  in  the  trenches  of 
Flanders  or  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula.  But  this  alternative 
was  naturally  not  even  considered.  The  only  course  left, 
therefore,  was  to  make  a  fight  in  their  own  country. 

The  Volunteer  Committee  was  exceptionally  well  informed 
of  the  efforts  made  by  the  British  Government  to  suppress 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


217 


their  organization.  That  this  information  was  correct  was 
shown  conclusively  by  the  later  admissions  of  the  British 
Government  itself.  This  will  be  dealt  with  in  another  place. 
Here  it  is  but  necessary  to  state  that  the  Committee  was  in 
possession  of  absolutely  reliable  information  of  everything 
that  the  British  Government  was  doing  and  contemplating, 
and  they  molded  their  actions  accordingly.  They  knew  that 
the  Government  was  anxious  to  suppress  the  Volunteers,  and 
that,  immediately  after  this  was  accomplished,  the  Conscrip- 
tion Act  would  be  extended  to  Ireland.  They  knew  also  that 
the  Government  was  prevented  from  applying  the  Conscrip- 
tion Act  to  Ireland  only  by  the  strength  of  the  Volunteers, 
and  that  the  time  was  certainly  coming  when  the  Govern- 
ment would  make  the  attempt  to  disarm  them  so  that  the 
Conscription  Act  might  be  made  applicable  to  Ireland.  The 
only  question  that  remained,  therefore,  was  when  and  how 
and  where  to  strike  the  blow. 

In  May,  1915,  the  situation  in  Ireland  reached  a  crisis. 
The  people  were  being  driven  to  desperation  by  the  acts  of 
the  Government  under  the  so-called  Defense  of  the  Realm 
Act.  Under  this  Act  men  were  being  deported  wholesale 
without  being  allowed  to  put  in  a  defense,  the  only  evidence 
required  being  a  sworn  statement  of  a  constable,  which  state- 
ment was  usually  not  submitted  to  the  accused  person.  Men 
were  being  thrown  into  jail  and  kept  there  without  trial. 
Women  were  being  treated  in  a  similar  manner.  In  number- 
less instances  men  were  arrested,  fined,  and  imprisoned  on  the 
most  trivial  charges,  and  often  without  charges  at  all. 

Practically  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  many  men  had 
been  preparing  for  the  rising.  It  was  obvious  that  the  rising 
must  have  its  initiative  in  the  capital.  The  headquarters  of 
the  Volunteers  and  the  leaders  of  the  movement  were  alike 
located  in  Dublin,  which  was  also  the  center  of  British  Gov- 
ernment. After  a  great  deal  of  discussion  it  was  decided  that 
the  best  place  for  the  initial  attack  would  be  the  General 
Post  Office  in  O'Connell  Street,  which  was  not  only  situated 
in  the  heart  of  the  city  but  would  also  give  the  rebels,  for  a 


218   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


time  at  all  events,  complete  control  over  the  telegraph  and 
telephone  systems.  It  was  of  primary  importance  that  the 
rebels  should  have  the  use  of  these  means  of  communication 
at  the  outset,  and  the  fact  that  the  English  would  not  be 
able  to  use  them  would  in  itself  be  a  factor  of  the  utmost 
value  to  the  Irish.  The  Post  Office  building  was  of  modern 
construction,  of  granite  stone,  and  able  to  withstand  an 
attack.  It  was  also  of  such  a  height  as  to  command  a  view 
of  the  other  portions  of  the  city. 

Another  question  that  was  discussed  at  length  was  the 
advisability  of  an  attack  on  Dublin  Castle,  the  seat  of  the 
British  Government  in  Ireland.  Always  of  the  most  sinister 
and  bloody  significance  in  Irish  history,  the  Castle  had  come 
to  be  synonymous  in  Irish  minds  with  the  worst  evils  of 
foreign  government.  In  previous  rebellions  attacks  had  been 
made  on  it,  but,  because  of  its  wonderful  strength  of  con- 
struction and  its  large  garrison  of  military,  these  attempts  had 
never  succeeded.  Apart  from  its  value  as  a  point  of  vantage 
for  the  Volunteers,  the  conquest  of  Dublin  Castle  would  have 
had  the  same  effect  as  the  fall  of  the  Bastile.  However,  it 
was  decided  not  to  make  a  serious  attack  on  it  at  the  outset 
of  the  Rebellion,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  attackers  would  be 
open  to  counter  attack  on  several  sides.  It  was  believed 
better  to  make  merely  a  sufficient  attack  to  keep  those 
within  it  busy  for  the  time  being,  and  to  defer  the  actual 
siege  until  a  later  stage  of  the  revolt. 

"Liberty  Hall,"  the  headquarters  of  the  Citizen  Army,  was 
another  strategic  center.  It  was  opposite  the  Custom  House, 
a  palatial  white  stone  building  facing  the  Liffey,  and  com- 
manded the  loop  line  of  railroad  leading  to  Amiens  Street 
Station.  It  was  also  within  a  short  distance  of  the  General 
Post  Office,  and  its  defenders,  if  forced  to  do  so,  could  retreat 
in  that  direction.  But  most  important  of  all,  it  commanded 
a  clear  view  of  the  river,  and  could  hamper  the  movement  of 
troops  along  or  across  the  Liffey. 

Another  position  that  the  Irish  determined  to  seize  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Rebellion  was  "Kelly's  Fort,"  at  the  corner 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  219 


of  Bachelor's  Walk  and  O'Connell  Street,  facing  directly  on 
O'Connell  Bridge.  It  was  necessary  to  hold  this  position  in 
order  to  enable  the  Irish  to  defend  the  bridge  against  attacks 
from  the  south  side  of  the  city.  The  Iron  Bridge,  Butt 
Bridge,  and  the  bridge  leading  to  the  Four  Courts  were  also 
of  strategic  importance.  The  Four  Courts  was  also  a  position 
of  great  strength,  which  could  not  only  be  held  for  a  con- 
siderable time  against  all  attacks,  but  which  also  commanded 
several  vital  points  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 

The  railroad  stations  —  Kingsbridge,  facing  the  Phoenix 
Park,  and  Broadstone,  near  Phibsboro  —  were  positions  that, 
once  captured,  could  be  held  without  much  trouble.  Amiens 
Street  Station,  at  the  foot  of  Talbot  Street,  was  in  a  very 
crowded  location  that  would  not  allow  very  great  freedom  of 
action  on  the  part  either  of  the  defenders  or  the  attackers, 
but  it  commanded  the  important  elevated  stretch  of  line 
leading  out  towards  the  Bull  Wall  at  Clontarf.  Westland 
Row  Station  was  of  modern  construction  and  offered  excellent 
positions  for  defense. 

All  of  these  points  of  the  situation  had  been  thoroughly 
considered  long  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  with  the 
declaration  of  the  war  another  and  a  vitally  important  factor 
had  been  added.  The  perfection  to  which  German  ingenuity 
and  science  had  brought  the  submarine  seemed  to  solve  one 
of  the  greatest  difficulties  that  the  Irish  had  to  face.  An 
Irish-Germanic  alliance  would  be  of  assistance  to  the  Irish, 
inasmuch  as  the  German  submarines  could  prevent  the  land- 
ing of  troops  by  sea,  and  at  the  same  time  could  prevent  the 
bombardment  of  the  coast  by  British  warships.  It  was  thus 
believed  that,  with  a  sufficient  force  of  men  in  Dublin  to 
occupy  all  the  more  important  points  of  vantage,  the  Irish 
would  be  able  to  take  care  of  the  British  army  in  Dublin  and 
its  neighborhood,  in  spite  of  all  that  that  army  could  do. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  was  obvious  that  the  men 
in  Dublin  would,  if  surrounded  by  a  hostile  force,  be  com- 
pelled to  surrender  eventually  if  left  to  their  fate.  The  plan 
of  the  Irish,  therefore,  was  that  the  men  in  Dublin  should 


220   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


hold  out  until  such  time  as  the  men  in  the  rest  of  the  country 
would  be  able  to  march  to  their  relief.  It  was  not  con- 
templated that  the  Rebellion  should  have  its  origin  and  end 
in  Dublin,  while  the  rest  of  the  country  was  content  to  take 
care  of  itself.  It  was  the  aim  of  the  organizers  from  the 
beginning  to  raise  large  forces  in  the  country  districts  and 
all  the  large  towns.  These  forces  were  so  distributed  that 
they  could  not  only  take  care  of  all  the  British  in  their  own 
vicinity,  but  could  also  release  large  numbers  to  form  a  relief 
force  to  march  to  Dublin. 

When  a  simultaneous  rising  took  place  throughout  the 
country,  the  British  forces  would  be  scattered.  There  were 
but  small  bands  of  soldiers  and  constabulary  in  most  of  the 
country  districts,  and  it  would  be  easy  to  capture  and  im- 
prison these.  In  some  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities  where 
the  enemy  forces  were  stronger,  it  would  be  necessary,  per- 
haps, to  adopt  tactics  similar  to  those  in  Dublin.  But  the 
onward  march  of  the  Irish  would  automatically  relieve  these 
positions  by  mere  weight  of  numbers,  and  end  in  the  concen- 
tration of  the  entire  Irish  force  on  Dublin.  The  plan,  in  brief, 
was  for  the  men  in  Dublin  to  proclaim  the  independence  of  the 
country,  and  then  to  hold  their  own  while  the  men  in  every 
other  section  gathered  together  and  swept  down  on  the  capi- 
tal.   That  the  plan  was  practicable  admits  of  no  doubt. 

It  was,  of  course,  essential  that  few  British  reinforcements 
should  be  allowed  to  reach  Ireland.  To  accomplish  this,  chief 
reliance  was  placed  on  the  cooperation  of  German  sub- 
marines. With  a  patrol  of  these  around  the  coast,  it  would 
be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  the  British  in  England  to 
send  relief  to  their  army  in  Ireland.  The  latter  would,  if 
the  fortune  of  war  favored  the  Irish  in  the  final  struggle  for 
the  mastery  of  Dublin,  be  forced  to  capitulate,  and  this 
would  leave  the  Irish  in  unchallenged  command  of  the  coun- 
try. In  addition  to  the  capture  of  the  forces  of  the  enemy, 
the  rifles,  machine  guns,  ammunition,  and  other  war  stocks 
that  would  thus  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Irish  would  add 
tremendously  to  the  strength  of  their  position. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  221 


But  the  cooperation  of  the  Germans  was  not  absolutely 
essential.  The  plan  provided  for  the  formation  of  a  cordon 
of  Volunteers  around  Dublin.  The  Republicans  in  the 
center  would  hold  the  points  of  vantage;  encircling  these 
would  be  the  cordon  of  the  British,  who  in  turn  would  be 
encircled  by  the  men  of  County  Dublin  and  the  adjoining 
counties.  The  latter  were  to  march  on  Dublin  immediately 
they  received  news  of  the  rising,  and  encircle  the  outskirts 
of  the  city.  Caught  thus  between  two  fires,  the  British  would 
have  been  forced  to  capitulate  before  the  arrival  of  reinforce- 
ments. Meanwhile  the  rest  of  the  country  would  be  in  arms, 
and  thousands  would  march  towards  the  capital  to  join  their 
comrades.  If  reinforcements  should  be  landed  before  the 
British  in  Dublin  were  forced  to  capitulate,  they  would  be 
destroyed  before  getting  far  on  their  way.  The  manner  in 
which  De  Valera  and  his  men  held  the  British  at  Mount 
Street  Bridge  is  sufficient  proof  of  the  difficulties  British  troops 
would  have  to  contend  with.  That  these  plans  were  not  car- 
ried out  was  due  entirely  to  the  fatal  countermanding  order. 

It  may  well  be  asked  what  the  Irish  would  do  once  they 
had  gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  country.  It  may  be  said 
that  they  would  still  be  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world  and 
surrounded  by  hostile  forces.  This  would  not  altogether  be 
the  case.  With  the  Irish  in  command  throughout  their  own 
country,  the  Germans  could  land  both  men  and  arms  by 
means  of  submarines.  Ireland  would  thus  become  a  vitally 
important  base  for  the  operations  of  the  Germans;  the  greater 
portion  of  the  sea  approaches  to  England  would  be  in  the 
hands  of  enemy  forces,  and  her  western  boundary  would  be 
seriously  menaced.  She  would  no  longer  have  the  command 
of  the  Atlantic  or  of  the  Irish  Sea,  and  an  entirely  new  field 
of  operations,  bristling  with  perils  and  difficulties,  would 
have  opened  for  her.  In  addition,  the  moral  effect  both  on 
the  outside  world  and  on  England  and  her  Allies  would  have 
been  tremendous.  It  is,  therefore,  obvious  that  the  plan  of 
the  Irish  not  only  had  in  it  a  large  possibility  of  success,  but, 
if  carried  out,  would  almost  certainly  have  proved  a  crowning 


222   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


disaster  for  England  in  the  war.  Ireland  would  have  been 
able  to  hold  out  till  the  conclusion  of  peace,  and  would  have 
no  occasion  to  petition  a  Peace  Conference  for  an  independ- 
ence which  her  arms  had  already  won. 

Even  thus  briefly  summarized,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  plan 
of  the  Irish  leaders  was  no  wild  scheme.  So  perfectly  were 
these  plans  laid  that  the  leaders  did  not  even  believe  defeat 
possible,  provided  their  arrangements  could  be  perfected. 
But  they  were  not  blind  to  the  fact  that  it  was  better  for 
them  to  make  the  attempt  and  fail  than  not  to  try  at  all. 
It  was  essential  that  Ireland  should  become  a  belligerent  in 
the  world  war.  Both  the  English  and  the  so-called  Irish 
leaders  had  told  the  world  that  Ireland  was  in  sympathy 
with  the  part  that  the  British  were  playing,  that  Ireland  was 
ready  and  willing  to  kiss  the  hands  that  had  scourged  her 
and  to  fight  on  the  side  of  the  power  that  had  oppressed  her 
for  centuries.  The  facts  were  just  the  direct  opposite.  The 
Irish  people  were  bitterly  incensed  against  the  British  Empire, 
not  alone  on  account  of  what  that  Empire  had  done  in  the 
past,  but  owing  still  more  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Irish 
people  were  being  treated  during  the  course  of  the  war  and 
right  up  to  the  time  of  the  Rising.  England  was  posing 
before  the  world  as  the  defender  of  the  small  nations,  when 
she  had  consistently  been  the  oppressor  of  every  small  nation 
that  had  come  within  her  power.  She  said  she  was  waging 
the  war  to  save  Belgium  from  being  exterminated,  when,  in 
reality,  she  was  fighting  a  trade  war  against  her  most  serious 
rival.  Ireland  believed  it  necessary  to  show  to  the  world 
that  she  had  no  share  in  England's  war,  that  her  soul  was  not 
dead,  that  she  was  still  fighting  for  her  freedom,  and  that  her 
men  and  women  were  ready  and  willing  to  die  for  her  sake. 

But  it  was  essential  that  Ireland  should  be  prepared,  and 
when  the  proposal  was  put  before  the  Volunteer  Committee 
in  May,  1915,  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  leader  of  that  body 
that  Ireland  was  not  yet  fully  equipped  for  the  great  adven- 
ture. Therefore  the  proposal  was  defeated,  and  the  work  of 
making  ready  continued. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 


An  Irish  Republic 


10  those  whose  knowledge  of  Irish  affairs  is  limited  to 


what  they  read  in  the  daily  press,  the  theory  of  an 


Irish  Republic  may  sound  rather  strange,  but  the 
ideal  has  exercised  a  great  influence  on  Irish  history  during 
modern  times.  Even  prior  to  1776  there  were  men  in  Ireland 
who  avowed  themselves  believers  in  the  doctrine  of  republi- 
canism. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  feudal  system  that  prevailed 
in  the  other  countries  of  Europe  was  never  part  of  the  Irish 
social  scheme.  Up  to  1649  the  Irish  chiefs  held  their  position 
at  the  will  of  their  people;  their  system  was  much  the  same 
as  that  which  is  now  called  republicanism.  The  Irish  were 
by  nature  democratic,  and  recognized  no  distinction  save  that 
of  intellect  or  military  prowess.  Their  ancient  civilization 
was  founded  on  these  lines,  and  did  not  grow  into  a  feudal 
system,  as  happened  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  surprising  that  the  doctrine  of  government  for 
the  people  by  the  people  should  take  quick  root  in  Irish  soil 
when  it  became  popular  in  the  western  world  towards  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  constitutional  plans  of  the  1916  leaders  were  simple, 
and  had  already  undergone  a  trial  in  the  case  of  the  Volun- 
teers. Broadly  speaking,  they  were  founded  on  the  American 
system  of  government.  It  was  arranged  that,  immediately 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  the  leaders  should  meet 
together.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  this  connection,  that 
the  vast  majority  of  these  leaders  had  been  elected  by  the 
men  in  the  Volunteer  Corps  throughout  the  country,  and 
were,  to  this  extent  at  least,  representative.  At  this  meeting 
of  the  leaders,  votes  were  to  be  cast  as  to  who  should  con- 
stitute the  First  Provisional  Government  of  the  Irish  Republic. 


224   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


A  Provisional  President  was  to  be  elected,  and  a  number  of 
men  to  assist  him  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  orders  of  this 
Provisional  Government.  The  President  was  to  be  in  sole 
command  of  the  armed  forces  of  the  country  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  head  of  the 
American  army  and  navy. 

This  Provisional  Government  was  to  continue  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  during  the  Rising  and  until  the  national 
issue  had  been  settled.  When  the  country  had  attained  her 
independence  and  peace  was  restored,  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment would  immediately  take  steps  to  hold  an  election 
throughout  the  country,  using  the  existing  electoral  districts 
and  system,  with  the  exception  that  every  man  and  woman 
of  legal  age  would  be  entitled  to  cast  a  vote.  There  was  to 
be  manhood  and  womanhood  suffrage.  It  was  to  be  an 
election  by  the  people  of  Ireland,  and  any  Irish  man  or 
woman  who  had  a  sufficient  number  of  names  on  his  or  her 
nomination  papers  would  be  eligible  for  election  as  President 
of  the  Republic.  In  this  election  there  was  to  be  no  distinc- 
tion of  class  or  creed.  So  long  as  a  man  or  a  woman  was 
Irish,  of  legal  age,  and  possessed  the  residential  qualification, 
he  or  she  had  a  right  to  participate  in  the  election  of  the 
Government  of  the  country.  The  men  and  the  women  of 
Ulster  would  be  on  the  same  level  as  the  men  and  the  women 
of  Munster,  Leinster,  and  Connacht.  There  would  thus  be 
no  possible  means  of  creating  dissension  or  of  any  one  party 
claiming  that  they  were  being  treated  unfairly. 

Coincident  with  the  election  of  the  President,  there  was  to 
be  held  the  election  of  the  governing  body.  At  first  there 
was  to  be  but  one  legislative  chamber.  This  body,  in  con- 
ference with  the  President,  was  then  to  elect  the  cabinet. 
They  would  then  take  up  the  question  of  a  dual  or  a  single 
system  of  government,  and  other  questions  relative  to  the 
composition  and  the  manner  of  the  government  for  the 
future.  When  these  questions  had  been  debated,  recom- 
mendations would  be  presented  to  the  people,  who  would  then 
decide  these  questions  for  themselves.    Thus  the  will  of  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  225 


whole  people  was  to  be  made  all-powerful  in  the  land,  and 
what  would  probably  have  been  the  most  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic system  of  government  the  world  has  yet  seen  would 
have  been  established. 

That  the  Irish  people  would  have  responded  to  such  a 
system  is  scarcely  open  to  doubt.  It  is  positive  that  under 
such  a  system  of  government  Ireland  would  have  entered 
upon  a  period  of  development  of  industries  and  manufactures, 
a  revival  of  literature,  science,  and  art,  such  as  she  had  not 
witnessed  since  the  opening  years  of  the  eleventh  century. 
In  countries  other  than  their  own,  the  Irish  have  given  in- 
dubitable proof  of  their  capacity  for  government  and  industrial 
development,  and  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  they 
should  not  be  able  to  do  in  their  own  country  what  they  have 
already  done  in  other  climes  where  they  enjoyed  that  personal 
freedom  of  action  denied  to  them  by  England. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 


Green,  White,  and  Orange 

FOR  generations  it  had  been  the  deliberate  and  calcu- 
lated policy  of  the  English  Government  to  keep 
separate  the  north  and  the  south  of  Ireland,  to 
draw  a  dividing  line  between  the  two  sections  of  the  country, 
and  to  accentuate  religious  differences.  The  reason  for  this 
policy  is  self-evident:  a  nation  divided  against  itself  must  of 
necessity  remain  in  the  power  of  a  strong  invader.  By 
making  the  Protestant  of  the  north  believe  that  his  life  and 
liberty  were  constantly  menaced  by  the  Catholic  of  the  south, 
east,  and  west,  the  English  were  able  to  keep  in  the  country 
a  perpetual  garrison  to  guard  their  own  interests  —  a  garrison 
that  would  lose  no  opportunity  of  attacking  the  motives 
of  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  country,  thus  breeding  sus- 
picion and  distrust.  On  the  other  hand,  the  foreign  Gov- 
ernment did  not  neglect  to  sow  the  insinuation  that  the 
Catholics  of  the  rest  of  the  country  might  also  be  in  danger 
from  the  Protestant  of  the  north.  By  these  simple  means 
the  invader  succeeded  in  keeping  the  country  divided  into 
two  portions,  each  apparently  with  different  interests  and 
opposing  aims. 

While  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people  were  Catholics,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  these  were  not  alone  in  their  pro- 
fessions of  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the  national  cause. 
Some  of  the  bravest  and  most  devoted  leaders  in  the  country 
were  Protestants  from  tbe  North,  who  preached  the  doctrine 
of  love  of  country  to  both  Catholic  and  Protestant.  These 
men  were  under  no  delusions  regarding  their  fellow-country- 
men who  differed  from  them  in  religious  faith.  They  held 
that  nationality  was  not  a  matter  of  religion,  and  that  a 
Protestant  and  a  Catholic  should  meet  on  the  same  ground 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  227 


as  Irishmen.  They  resented  the  imputation  that  a  Protestant 
could  not  be  an  Irishman,  and  proved  by  their  actions  that 
the  Irish  Protestant  was  just  as  keenly  interested  in  the  wel- 
fare of  Ireland,  and  just  as  bitterly  opposed  to  the  foreigner, 
as  the  Irish  Catholic. 

For  some  years  prior  to  the  rebellion  of  1798  there  had 
been  growing  up  in  the  country  a  number  of  secret  organi- 
zations, most  of  which  had  for  their  purpose  the  terrorizing 
either  of  the  Catholic  or  the  Protestant  inhabitants.  This 
condition  of  affairs  suited  the  English  Government,  and  few 
if  any  efforts  were  made  to  suppress  these  societies.  When 
repression  was  made,  it  was  the  Catholic  Society  that  came 
under  the  ban  of  the  law.  Thus  it  happened  that  two  power- 
ful organizations  came  into  existence  —  the  "Peep-of-Day 
Boys,"  who  favored  the  Protestant  side,  and  the  "Defenders," 
who  took  the  part  of  the  Catholics.  The  membership  of 
these  two  societies  increased  rapidly,  and  the  rivalry  between 
them  grew  to  such  a  pitch  that  it  eventually  resulted  in  a 
pitched  and  bloody  battle  being  fought  between  them  in 
Armagh,  at  a  place  called  The  Diamond,  and  which  resulted 
in  the  "Defenders,"  or  Catholic  faction,  being  defeated  with 
serious  loss.  This  victory  for  the  "Peep-of-Day  Boys"  had 
the  effect  of  creating  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  north,  in  which 
the  Catholics  suffered  loss  of  life  and  property.  Outrages 
became  frequent,  and  the  division  between  the  north  and 
the  south  was  more  keenly  accentuated  than  ever. 

In  order  to  understand  these  peculiar  conditions  in  the 
land,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Protestants  of  the 
north  were  the  descendants  of  English  and  Scottish  planters, 
who  had  been  placed  in  possession  of  the  land  by  the  English 
Government  for  the  purpose  of  ousting  the  natives  from  the 
country.  When  it  was  realized  by  the  English  that  the  Irish 
did  not  take  kindly  to  conquest  and  were  inclined  to  create 
a  great  deal  of  trouble,  the  English  decided  that  the  best 
thing  to  do  was  to  induce  a  number  of  their  own  kind  to 
settle  on  the  land,  and  to  so  use  the  Irish  that  the  latter 
would  be  forced  to  get  out.    Various  settlements  of  the 


228   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


English  were  made,  but  in  each  case  the  majority  of  the 
newcomers  were  absorbed  by  the  more  virile  race,  and 
frequently  became  the  strongest  advocates  of  the  claims  of 
the  Irish  people  to  national  liberty. 

An  English  plantation  of  Ulster  was  attempted  in  1573, 
but  this  was  a  failure,  and  Thomas  Smith,  the  leader  of  the 
English,  was  slain.  A  similar  attempt,  made  under  the  Earl 
of  Essex  in  the  same  year,  was  also  a  failure.  Other  efforts 
met  with  no  better  success,  and  it  was  not  until  1608  that  a 
Royal  Commission  took  the  matter  thoroughly  into  considera- 
tion, with  the  result  that  the  entire  northern  province  was 
confiscated  and  divided  in  a  systematic  manner  into  lots  of 
from  1000  to  2000  acres  each.  These  lots  were  then  parceled 
out  to  a  new  set  of  planters,  composed  of  a  number  of  English 
colonists  with  a  majority  of  Scottish  farmers  and  merchants. 
In  addition,  large  sections  of  the  province  were  allotted  to 
various  London  Corporations  and  to  private  individuals. 
It  was  stipulated  that  all  of  these  planters  should  belong  to 
the  Protestant  faith,  that  they  should  follow  English  or 
Scottish  customs,  and  were  to  employ  no  Irish  in  any  capacity. 
Thus  Ulster  was  at  last  planted,  and  what  seemed  to  be  the 
chief  obstacle  to  the  conquest  of  the  country  was  removed. 

The  Scottish  planters  took  care  to  hand  down  to  their  sons 
and  daughters  the  trust  they  had  received,  to  keep  the  Irish 
in  subjection,  and  to  do  everything  for  the  honor  and  glory 
of  the  Protestant  religion.  The  "Peep-of-Day  Boys"  were 
their  natural  successors,  and,  after  the  victory  of  The  Dia- 
mond, they  decided  they  would  form  a  new  and  more  powerful 
organization.  This  was  done,  and  the  Orange  Society  came 
into  being.  William  III,  Prince  of  Orange,  was  chosen  as 
the  patron  saint  of  the  new  society,  and  the  Battle  of  the 
Boyne,  which  was  fought  in  1690,  became  the  annual  festival 
of  the  society,  being  celebrated  on  every  twelfth  of  July.  The 
orange  lily  was  chosen  as  the  emblem  of  the  brotherhood,  and 
orange  as  its  distinctive  color. 

Almost  coincident  with  the  formation  of  the  Orange  Society, 
which  received  the  warm  encouragement  of  the  English 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  229 


Government,  efforts  were  made  to  neutralize  its  effects. 
There  were  many  Irish  Protestants  even  in  those  days  who 
were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  war  of  religious  fanaticism 
and  oppression  conducted  by  the  Orangemen.  At  the  same 
time  the  outrages  of  the  Orangemen  upon  their  Catholic 
neighbors  were  so  continuous  that  reprisals  were  but  natural, 
and  the  effect  was  as  the  English  had  hoped  —  the  country 
was  split  into  two  warring  factions,  with  an  increasing  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  that  seemed  destined  to  last  for  all  time. 

Coming  to  later  times  the  United  Irishmen,  formed  in 
Belfast  in  October,  1791,  by  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  aimed  at 
a  reunion  of  all  parties  for  the  securing  of  the  common  rights 
of  all  Irishmen.  Tone,  himself  a  Protestant,  saw  that  the 
religious  strife  was  promoted  by  the  English  only  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  country  in  subjection,  and  he  openly 
espoused  the  rights  of  his  Catholic  fellow-countrymen  and 
urged  on  his  Protestant  friends  and  neighbors  to  do  the  same. 
This  organization  attained  considerable  strength  and,  through 
various  phases  of  fortune,  maintained  itself  until  the  Rebellion 
of  1848,  when  the  new  national  color  was  adopted  of  green, 
white,  and  orange,  the  green  being  the  color  chosen  by  the 
other  three  provinces,  the  orange  being  the  emblem  of  the 
North,  and  the  white,  the  connecting  link,  signifying  peace, 
unity,  and  brotherhood.  This  soon  came  to  be  recognized 
as  the  banner  of  those  who  had  pledged  themselves  to  win 
by  force  of  arms  the  freedom  of  Ireland. 

John  Mitchel,  another  Protestant  northerner,  was  perhaps 
the  most  ardent  advocate  of  national  unity  who  ever  led  the 
men  of  Ireland  in  their  struggle  for  Freedom.  The  pages  of 
his  paper,  The  United  Irishman,  which  he  edited  during  1848, 
contain  scores  of  appeals  to  the  people  to  forget  their  alleged 
differences  and  unite  against  the  common  enemy.  He  wrote 
editorial  after  editorial,  addressed  to  the  Protestant  farmers, 
laborers,  and  artisans  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  he  was 
always  able  to  point  out  that  their  interests  lay  in  joining 
hands  with  their  fellow-countrymen  and  opposing  the  efforts 
of  the  foreigner  to  rule  and  ruin  both.    The  Irish  Felon. 


230   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


which  succeeded  The  United  Irishman  after  the  trial  and 
sentence  of  Mitchel,  continued  the  same  work,  which  was 
also  carried  on  by  The  Irish  Tribune,  published  about  the 
same  time.  In  The  Irish  Felon,  James  Fintan  Lalor.  one  of 
the  brightest  spirits  among  Irish  patriots,  wrote  on  the 
subject  in  language  that  remains  to-day  as  vivid  an  inspiration 
as  when  it  was  first  penned.  The  spirit  that  animated  the 
men  of  these  days  and  of  the  days  that  followed  cannot  be 
better  illustrated  than  in  the  words  of  the  poem  by  "Maire," 
published  in  The  Felon  of  July  22,  1848.  It  is  entitled  "A 
Harvest  Song"  and  is  as  follows: 

Gaily  our  banner  is  over  us  streaming  — 

Green  as  our  hills  is  its  emerald  light; 
White,  snowy,  pure  as  our  noble  cause  gleaming; 

Orange,  that  waves  as  a  harvest-field,  bright;  — 
Calling  to  mind  by  its  tri-color  blending  — 

On  as  we  dash  with  defiant  hurrah  — 
Never  forget  it,  our  war-cry  unbending  — 

"Freedom,"  the  Felons,  and  Eire-go-Bragh. 

Come  —  you  from  iron  cliffs  hanging  o'er  ocean; 

Come  —  you  from  valleys  that  sleep  in  their  green; 
Come,  like  your  own  rushing  torrents  in  motion; 

Come  as  the  lightning-flash,  felt  when  'tis  seen. 
Marching  like  brothers  still,  hand  in  hand  grasping, 

Discord  fling  down  and  with  gallant  hurrah, 
Back  let  the  echoes  ring,  till  we're  laid  gasping  in: 

Freedom,  the  Felons,  and  Eire-go-Bragh. 

The  Fenian  organization,  or  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood, 
was  the  natural  successor  to  the  movements  led  by  Tone  and 
Mitchel.  William  Smith  O'Brien,  who  may  almost  be  said 
to  have  founded  the  I.  R.  B.  by  his  own  efforts,  was  con- 
temporary with  Mitchel  and  had  imbibed  all  the  teachings  of 
that  splendid  patriot.  From  the  beginning  it  was  a  cardinal 
point  of  faith  with  the  Fenians  that  there  should  be  no 
dividing  line  of  religion,  that  it  mattered  not  what  a  man's 
faith  might  be  so  long  as  he  was  true  to  Ireland.  The 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  231 


Fenians  also  adopted  the  tricolor  of  green,  white  and 
orange,  and  they,  in  their  turn,  passed  it  down  to  the  men 
who  flung  it  to  the  breeze  in  April,  1916.  While  many  of 
these  men  were  not  actual  members  of  the  I.  R.  B.,  they 
recognized  that  this  was  the  flag  of  Ireland,  the  flag  of  the 
Irish  Republic,  and  from  that  day  it  became  the  national 
emblem. 

It  was,  therefore,  rather  disconcerting  to  find,  within  the 
first  few  weeks  after  the  Rebellion,  many  enthusiastic  and 
poetically  inclined  individuals  inscribing  ecstatic  stanzas  in 
eulogy  of  the  "green  and  gold."  While,  in  ancient  days, 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  national  color  in  Ireland,  yellow 
was  recognized  from  an  early  date  as  peculiar  to  the  leading 
Ulster  clans.  Blue  was  also  a  favorite  color  emblem  with  the 
ancient  Irish  and  at  one  time  assumed  a  vogue  that  may  be 
said  to  have  given  it  a  national  significance.  One  of  the 
most  prominent  emblems  was  the  Sunburst,  showing  a 
yellow  sun  on  a  blue  field.  The  amalgamation  of  these  two 
colors,  the  yellow  and  the  blue,  produced  the  green,  which, 
although  it  became  known  the  world  over  as  the  Irish  national 
color,  was  nevertheless  a  comparatively  modern  innovation. 
The  history  of  the  orange  has  already  been  traced,  and  it 
will  thus  be  seen  that  gold  never  entered  into  the  national 
color  scheme  of  Ireland.  On  the  other  hand,  the  green,  white, 
and  orange  possesses  a  genuine  historical  significance,  and 
was  most  appropriately  made  symbolical  of  a  free  and  a 
united  nation. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 


What  Did  Redmond  Mean? 

FROM  May,  1915,  when  the  proposal  that  the  Volun- 
teers should  at  once  declare  for  an  armed  insurrection 
was  defeated  or  deferred  by  Eoin  MacNeill's  casting 
vote,  the  work  of  preparing  for  the  rising  went  steadily  on. 
It  was  even  then  recognized  that  the  time  could  not  be  much 
longer  postponed,  and  that  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost  if 
matters  were  to  be  in  readiness  when  the  proper  moment 
came.  In  America  it  was  well  known  that  the  decision  had 
been  reached  for  a  rising,  and  efforts  were  made  to  insure 
that  the  men  at  home  should  have  sufficient  arms  and  war 
supplies  to  enable  them  to  make  that  struggle  a  success.  It 
was  found  almost  impossible  to  send  arms  and  ammunition 
from  America  to  Ireland,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  millions  of 
dollars'  worth  of  war  material  were  being  shipped  from 
American  ports  to  the  Allies  every  week.  With  a  patrol  of 
British  war  vessels  lying  outside  New  York  and  elsewhere  off 
the  coast,  there  was  small  chance  of  a  cargo  of  arms  being 
safely  transferred  from  this  country  to  Ireland.  It  was, 
therefore,  determined  that  the  best,  and  in  fact  the  only 
way  to  get  the  arms  into  the  country  was  from  Germany. 

Sir  Roger  Casement  had  been  sent  to  Germany  for  the 
purpose  of  representing  Irish  interests  there.  It  was  not  a 
part  of  the  work  that  had  been  assigned  him  to  make  any 
negotiations  for  the  sending  of  arms  from  Germany  to  Ireland. 
Casement  was  thought  to  be  of  too  pacific  a  nature  to  be 
fitted  for  the  task,  and  it  was  far  better  that  other  men 
should  do  this  work  while  he  remained  in  touch  with  the  Im- 
perial Court  and  with  the  leaders  in  Ireland  so  that  the  men 
in  Ireland  would  be  the  better  able  to  judge  of  the  time 
when  the  blow  could  be  struck  with  the  greatest  effect. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  233 


Throughout  1915  and  the  early  part  of  1916  the  work  of 
preparing  the  men  of  Ireland  for  the  rising  and  of  organizing 
the  country  districts  progressed  very  smoothly.  The  main 
difficulty  with  which  the  leaders  had  to  contend  was  that  the 
men  under  them  were  too  eager  for  action.  While  the 
British  Government  was  doing  everything  in  its  power  to 
provoke  the  men  to  a  premature  outbreak,  it  was  difficult 
for  the  Volunteers  to  restrain  themselves.  Many  incidents 
showed  how  the  temper  of  the  people  was  rising,  and  those 
who  were  directly  responsible  for  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try began,  to  feel  some  alarm,  more  particularly  as  the  efforts 
of  the  military  did  not  produce  any  actual  clash,  and  it  was 
more  and  more  obvious  that  each  succeeding  day  saw  the 
Volunteers  better  prepared  for  the  task  before  them. 

An  interesting  indication  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
discontent  of  the  people  had  resulted  from  the  outrageous 
treatment  to  which  they  were  being  subjected  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  some  of  the  hardest  workers  in  the  preparations 
for  the  rising  were  found  among  the  priests  and  the  school 
teachers.  Seeing  where  English  policy  and  Redmondism 
were  leading,  many  of  the  priests,  particularly  those  of  the 
younger  generation,  came  out  openly  and  advised  the  people 
to  do  all  in  their  power  to  resist  the  English  law.  This  had 
special  application  to  the  commandeering  of  the  crops  for 
the  feeding  of  the  British  and  Allied  forces  at  the  front,  and 
the  Irish  priests  told  their  people  that,  if  they  allowed  their 
crops  to  be  taken,  the  country  would  again  be  plunged  into 
the  miseries  of  famine  and  starvation  similar  to  the  black  and 
dreadful  days  of  1846,  1847,  and  1848.  At  the  same  time  the 
cost  of  foodstuffs  was  rising  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
season  was  one  of  the  best  in  many  years.  These  were  signs 
which  the  Irish  people  were  not  slow  to  appraise. 

In  September,  1915,  the  English  Government  made  the 
sudden  discovery  that  communications  were  passing  between 
the  Volunteer  leaders  in  Ireland  and  the  heads  of  the  Clan-na- 
Gael  in  the  United  States.  This  seems  to  have  been  some- 
what of  a  shock  to  them,  although  they  must  have  known 


234   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


that  these  negotiations  were  going  on  from  the  first  day  the 
Volunteers  were  founded  in  November,  1913.  The  English 
officials  also  discovered  that  money  was  being  sent  to  Ireland 
—  a  fact  that  was  openly  published  in  the  Irish  papers  in 
New  York  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  United  States 
eighteen  months  previously.  Some  of  the  discoveries  made 
by  the  British  Government  during  this  period  of  Irish  history 
would  provide  excellent  material  for  a  farce.  The  rising  was 
being  planned  out  in  the  open,  was  being  openly  advocated, 
and  everyone  knew  it  was  coming,  and  yet  the  "private  and 
confidential"  reports  of  the  paid  agents  of  the  Castle  were 
apparently  able  to  discover  only  what  was  public  information 
months  previously. 

That  the  Government  was  then  becoming  seriously  worried 
over  the  situation  is  certain.  On  December  18,  1915,  a 
lengthy  letter  was  sent  from  the  Undersecretary  to  Chief 
Secretary  Augustine  Birrell,  from  which  the  following  is  an 
extract: 

What  is  Redmond  up  to  with  his  comparisons  between  Ireland 
and  Great  Britain  in  the  matters  of  police  and  crime?  He  knows, 
or  should  know,  after  what  Dillon  wrote  to  him  over  a  month  ago 
in  the  inclosed  "confidential"  letter,  and  repeated  verbally  on  the 
3d  inst.,  that  the  present  situation  in  Ireland  is  most  serious  and 
menacing.  Redmond  himself  sent  me  the  other  "private"  inclosure 
on  the  9th.  He  knows,  or  should  know,  that  the  enrolled  strength 
of  the  Sinn  Fein  Volunteers  has  increased  by  a  couple  of  thousand 
active  members  in  the  last  two  months  to  a  total  of  some  13,500, 
and  each  group  of  these  is  a  center  of  revolutionary  propaganda.  He 
knows,  or  should  know,  that  efforts  are  being  made  to  get  arms  for 
the  support  of  this  propaganda  —  that  the  Irish  Volunteers  have 
already  some  2500  rifles,  that  they  have  their  eyes  on  the  10,000 
in  the  hands  of  the  supine  National  Volunteers,  and  that  they  are 
endeavoring  to  supplement  their  rifles  with  shot  guns,  revolvers,  and 
pistols.  New  measures,  possibly  requiring  additional  police  at  the 
ports,  will  be  required  to  counter  these  attempts,  and  unless  in 
other  matters  we  keep  these  revolutionaries  under  observation  we 
shall  not  be  in  a  position  to  deal  with  the  outbreak,  which  we  hope 
will  not  occur,  but  which  undoubtedly  will  follow  any  attempt  to 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  235 


enforce  conscription,  or,  even  if  there  is  no  such  attempt,  might  take 
place  as  result  of  continued  unsuccess  of  British  arms. 

This  communication  is  illuminating  in  more  respects  than 
one.  In  the  first  place  it  offers  proof  positive  that  Redmond 
and  Dillon  were  completely  aware  of  the  position  of  affairs  in 
Ireland  at  a  time  when  they  were  telling  the  people  of 
America,  through  the  inspired  cables  of  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
that  the  Irish  were  enthusiastic  in  their  support  of  the  British. 
At  the  time  when  Redmond  was  telling  his  American  dupes 
that  the  men  of  Ireland  were  joining  the  British  army  at  the 
rate  of  so  many  thousands  per  week,  the  actual  fact,  known 
to  him  and  to  his  colleagues,  was  that  the  men  of  Ireland  were 
joining  the  Volunteers  led  by  Eoin  MacNeill  and  were  prepar- 
ing for  rebellion.  This  official  communication  also  proves 
that  the  British  Government  did  not  dare  to  put  conscription 
into  force  in  Ireland,  not  because  Mr.  Redmond  asked  them 
not  to  do  so,  but  because  both  Redmond  and  his  British 
paymasters  were  afraid  of  the  rifles  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish 
Volunteers.  The  official  reference  to  the  so-called  "National" 
Volunteers,  led  by  Mr.  Redmond,  as  "supine,"  is  also  en- 
lightening. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  they  are  not  referred 
to  as  the  "loyal  Volunteers"  by  the  British  officials.  Mr. 
Redmond's  friends  chose,  whether  by  accident  or  design,  a 
far  more  expressive  epithet. 

But  —  and  this  is  far  more  important  —  the  communication 
also  shows  that  the  British  Government  in  Ireland  had  at  last 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Irish  were  not  to  be  fooled 
and  misled  any  longer,  and  that  it  was  time  to  take  action. 
It  would  appear  that  Undersecretary  Sir  Matthew  Nathan 
had  a  far  surer  grip  of  the  actual  position  of  affairs  than 
those  who  held  more  responsible  positions.  He  had  already 
warned  his  superiors  that  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Ireland 
was  not  what  it  was  being  officially  represented  to  be,  and 
many  of  his  communications  are  reposing  in  Downing  Street, 
London,  where  they  have  been  hidden  from  the  light  of  day 
and  will  possibly  make  interesting  reading  for  the  archjeolo- 


236   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


gists  of  the  future.  It  is  quite  certain  that  these  letters,  as 
well  as  many  other  documents  dealing  with  the  Rebellion, 
are  not  destined  to  be  disclosed  to  the  public  during  the 
twentieth  century,  if  the  British  Government  is  able  to  prevent 
it. 

St.  Patrick's  Day,  1916,  was  observed  in  such  a  manner 
in  Ireland  that  from  that  day  Secretary  Birrell  decided  to 
receive  daily  reports  on  the  condition  of  affairs  from  his 
spies  and  the  police.  He  later  admitted  as  much  in  his 
evidence  before  the  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  the  Revolution.  The  Irish  National  Festival  was 
observed  by  parades  of  the  Volunteers  throughout  the  country, 
under  orders  from  their  headquarters.  From  every  part  of 
the  country  specially  appointed  officers  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary  turned  in  reports  to  their  Inspector  General 
dealing  with  these  parades.  In  the  report  that  this  Inspector 
General  forwarded  to  the  officials  of  the  Government  as  a 
summary  of  the  proceedings,  the  following  passage  is  interest- 
ing: 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Irish  Volunteer  leaders  are  a  pack 
of  rebels  who  would  proclaim  their  independence  in  the  event  of 
any  favorable  opportunity  but  with  their  present  resources  and 
without  substantial  reinforcements  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  they 
will  make  even  a  brief  stand  against  a  small  body  of  troops.  These 
observations,  however,  are  made  with  reference  to  the  provinces  and 
not  to  the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Area,  which  is  the  center  of  the 
movement. 

From  this  time  on,  the  recruiting  question  being  very  acute 
across  the  Channel  owing  to  the  protests  that  France  and 
Russia  were  making,  the  question  of  disarming  the  Volunteers 
was  most  acutely  exercising  the  minds  of  the  Government. 
The  Government  now  found  itself  faced  by  the  results  of  its 
own  weakness  and  double-dealing  of  two  years  before.  They 
found  that,  if  they  were  to  disarm  the  Irish  Volunteers,  they 
would  also  have  to  disarm  the  "National"  Volunteers,  "led" 
by  Redmond.  To  do  otherwise  would  be  to  increase  still 
further  the  anti-English  feeling  throughout  the  country.  If 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  237 


they  disarmed  the  "National"  Volunteers,  they  would  also 
have  to  disarm  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  or  otherwise  the  cry  of 
unfair  discrimination  would  be  raised.  That  the  Ulster 
Volunteers  would  not  submit  to  being  disarmed  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion.  Furthermore,  the  Cabinet  was  a  coalition 
cabinet,  and  contained  a  number  of  the  men  who  had  been 
foremost  in  the  formation  of  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  and  who 
would  see  the  Government  disrupted  rather  than  consent  to 
the  disarming  of  their  followers.  Thus  the  Government  was 
placed  between  the  Devil  and  the  Deep  Blue  Sea,  and  had 
only  itself  to  thank  for  its  predicament.  Had  the  Liberals 
been  genuine  in  their  professions  to  the  Irish  when  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  was  first  introduced,  and  had  they  then  prevented 
the  formation  of  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  they  would  have  had 
no  Irish  Volunteers  and  no  disarmament  problem  to  trouble 
them. 

The  leaders  of  the  Volunteers  were  well  aware  of  the  inten- 
tions of  the  Government,  and,  during  the  last  week  in  March, 
the  Council  of  the  Volunteers  held  a  meeting  in  Dublin. 
The  session  lasted  a  considerable  time.  The  advisability  of 
striking  a  blow  then  was  under  discussion,  and  it  was  the 
opinion  of  many  that  the  time  had  come.  Others,  however, 
including  Eoin  MacNeill,  feared  that  they  were  not  suffi- 
ciently prepared,  and  that  they  had  not  sufficient  arms  for 
their  purpose.  It  was  realized  that  the  situation  was  serious 
in  the  extreme,  and  a  proclamation  was  issued  to  the  public  — 
but  really  to  the  Government  —  warning  the  Government 
that  the  Volunteers  "cannot  submit  to  be  disarmed,  and  that 
the  raiding  for  arms  and  the  attempted  disarming  of  men, 
therefore,  in  the  natural  course  of  things,  can  only  be  met 
by  resistance  and  bloodshed." 

The  Government  met  this  ultimatum  by  ordering  the  exile 
of  a  number  of  the  Volunteer  organizers.  On  March  28, 
expulsion  orders  were  served  on  A.  Monaghan,  Volunteer 
organizer  of  Galway,  and  E.  Blythe  and  William  Mellows,  of 
Dublin.  They  were  arrested  and  told  they  would  be  kept 
in  jail  until  they  had  made  arrangement  to  get  out  of  the 


238   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


country.  Simultaneously  a  number  of  newspapers  were 
suppressed  —  every  paper  that  still  possessed  a  spark  of 
national  sentiment  being  silenced.  It  was  evident  that,  being 
afraid  of  taking  a  definite  step  to  put  an  end  to  the  Volun- 
teers, the  Government  had  embarked  on  a  policy  of  deliberate 
provocation  in  the  hope  that  they  would  either  scare  the 
Volunteers  into  submission,  or  else  cause  a  premature  outbreak 
that  could  easily  be  suppressed. 

Coincidently,  Redmond  made  a  speech  in  Galway  in  which 
he  stated  that,  unless  Ireland  offered  up  at  least  1000  of  her 
men  weekly  to  the  British  as  cannon  fodder  in  France,  Eng- 
land would  refuse,  and  rightly,  to  stand  by  her  Home  Rule 
agreement.  Redmond  did  not  say  whether  or  not  he  had 
been  ordered  by  the  British  Government  to  make  this  state- 
ment, but  it  is  known  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the  strong 
cordon  of  police  and  military  that  attended  Redmond  on  that 
occasion,  he  would  not  have  escaped  with  his  life.  It  was 
well  known  to  the  Dublin  Castle  authorities  that  arrange- 
ments had  been  made  to  deal  with  the  man  by  whom  the 
Irish  believed  they  had  been  deliberately  tricked  and  betrayed. 

At  the  same  time  the  proposal  was  put  forward  that 
Ireland  should  be  taxed  to  pay  one-sixth  of  the  expenses  of 
the  war.  This  proposal  was  met  by  a  storm  of  protests  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  Even  the  Anglicized  Dublin  Cor- 
poration passed  a  motion  stating  that  the  Council  "viewed 
with  alarm  the  proposed  enormous  increase  in  taxation,"  and 
requesting  the  Irish  representatives  in  Parliament  to  resist 
any  such  increase  "as  contrary  to  both  the  Act  of  Union  and 
the  Home  Rule  Act,"  at  the  same  time  pointing  out  that 
"Ireland's  building  and  other  chief  industries  are  practically 
at  an  end  owing  to  the  war.  This  being  so,  the  incidence  of 
taxation  is  different  from  that  obtaining  in  Great  Britain, 
and  so  should  be  taxed,  especially  as  a  Royal  Commission  has 
already  so  recommended." 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 


Casement  and  the  Irish  Leaders 

SUFFICIENT  mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
reasons  why  Roger  Casement  went  to  Berlin  as 
Ireland's  Ambassador.  That  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  actual  plans  of  the  Rebellion,  and  that  in  fact  he 
did  everything  in  his  power  to  prevent  it,  is  established  fact. 
One  of  the  most  pressing  needs  of  the  men  in  Ireland  was  the 
need  of  arms  and  ammunition.  Some  months  before  the 
rising  a  message  was  dispatched  to  Berlin  asking  for  arms, 
and  the  German  Government  thereupon  made  the  necessary 
arrangements  to  comply  with  the  Irish  request. 

At  the  same  time  a  message  was  sent  to  Berlin  asking  that 
the  consignment  of  the  arms  be  kept  secret  from  Sir  Roger 
Casement.  This  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  letters 
which  Casement  was  sending  to  New  York  were  of  a  nature 
that  made  it  certain  that  he  would  not  be  in  sympathy  with 
a  revolutionary  movement  at  that  time.  Before  going  to 
Germany,  Casement  was  under  the  belief  that  the  Teutons 
were  certain  of  victory  and  that  Ireland  was  in  danger  of 
being  involved  in  the  downfall  of  the  British  Empire.  On 
this  account  he  made  representations  to  the  German  Govern- 
ment with  the  result  that  the  proclamation  already  mentioned 
was  issued  by  that  Government. 

Later  on,  however,  Casement,  for  reasons  that  will  probably 
never  be  known,  became  less  certain  as  to  the  outcome  of 
the  war.  He  began  to  feel  that  the  struggle  could  end  in  no 
decisive  manner,  and  that  a  compromise  peace  would  be  the 
result.  He  thought  that,  if  this  were  the  case,  any  attempt 
at  rebellion  in  Ireland  was  foredoomed  to  failure.  Being 
practically  exiled  in  Germany,  he  had  little  or  no  means  of 


240    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


knowing  the  extent  of  the  preparations  that  had  been  made, 
and  also  knew  nothing  of  the  manner  in  which  the  British 
Government  was  treating  Ireland  at  the  time.  He  was,  in 
fact,  quite  out  of  touch  with  the  actual  facts  of  the  situation. 

When,  therefore,  he  learned  that  a  rising  was  possible  in 
Ireland,  he  lost  no  time  in  seeking  to  prevent  it.  In  the 
course  of  letters  which  he  managed  to  get  through  to  New 
York,  he  made  this  attitude  very  clear.  He  declared  it  would 
be  folly  for  Ireland  to  make  any  attempt  at  rebellion.  "There 
is  no  chance  for  the  poor  old  woman,"  wrote  Casement  on  one 
occasion  —  the  reference  being  to  Ireland  under  one  of  her 
Gaelic  titles. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  also  able  to  get  similar  communi- 
cations into  Ireland,  addressed  to  Eoin  MacNeill.  For  these 
reasons  it  was  not  considered  advisable  by  a  majority  of  those 
who  were  organizing  the  Revolution  that  Casement  should  be 
made  acquainted  with  their  plans.  It  was  not  that  they 
thought  Casement  other  than  sincere;  he  would  never  have 
been  allowed  to  represent  Ireland  in  Germany  had  there  been 
any  idea  that  he  was  not  a  genuine  Nationalist.  Casement 
was  trusted  implicitly  and  given  plenipotentiary  powers  in 
Germany  in  so  far  as  diplomatic  relations  were  concerned. 
Casement  had  always  been  known  both  to  his  friends  and  his 
foes  as  a  staunch  Irish  Nationalist,  and  the  fact  that  he  was 
one  of  those  who  had  assisted  in  the  purchase  of  the  consign- 
ment of  arms  that  was  landed  at  Howth  was  also  not  for- 
gotten. Casement's  sincerity  was  above  question,  yet  there 
was  no  doubt  that  it  was  better  that  he  should  know  nothing 
regarding  the  request  to  the  German  Government  for  the 
consignment  of  arms. 

Neither  was  it  the  intention  of  the  Irish  leaders  to  supersede 
Casement  in  Germany.  As  Ireland's  Ambassador,  he  was 
carrying  out  most  capably  the  work  to  which  he  had  been 
assigned,  and  which  he  had  chosen  for  his  own.  That  work 
did  not  include  the  making  of  plans  for  a  rebellion  in  Dublin. 
It  was  not  the  part  of  an  ambassador  to  carry  out  negotiations 
of  this  kind.    He  was  there  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  in 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  241 


touch  with  the  actual  trend  of  events  in  Germany  in  so  far 
as  they  concerned  Ireland.  It  was  also  a  fact  that  Casement 
was  not  of  the  stuff  that  conspirators  —  if  the  word  may  be 
used  in  this  connection  —  are  made.  He  had  amply  demon- 
strated that  he  had  nothing  to  conceal;  he  had  several  times 
spoken  freely  to  newspaper  correspondents,  and  seemed  to 
delight  in  making  the  fullest  possible  statements  regarding 
his  own  affairs.  This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  he  was 
not  a  diplomat,  either;  but  that  he  was  just  a  little  too 
trusting  in  the  sincerity  of  the  motives  of  everyone  with  whom 
he  came  into  contact. 

Not  knowing  the  true  state  of  affairs  in  Ireland,  but  hearing 
that  a  rebellion  was  being  planned,  Casement  at  once  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  this  rebellion  could  not  possibly  succeed, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Germans,  however  willing  they 
might  be,  were  not  then  in  a  position  to  undertake  any 
operations  that  would  assist  Ireland.  Casement  was  appar- 
ently of  the  opinion  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the 
rebellion  to  succeed  unless  a  German  army  was  landed 
immediately  in  Ireland.  This  was  not  the  case.  It  was 
perfectly  true  that  the  landing  of  a  German  army  in  Ireland 
would  have  been  of  the  greatest  help  to  the  Irish  Republicans. 
But  the  plans  were  so  made  that  it  was  possible  for  the 
rebellion  to  succeed  even  if  Germany  did  nothing  at  all. 
All  that  Germany  was  asked  to  do,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was 
to  send  a  consignment  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  machine 
guns.  The  German  submarines  might  also  be  of  use,  as  has 
been  mentioned,  in  preventing  the  arrival  of  reinforcements 
for  the  British. 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  German  Government  had  a 
shrewd  suspicion  as  to  the  reasons  why  they  were  asked  not 
to  make  Casement  acquainted  with  the  request  for  munitions. 
It  was  certainly  not  owing  to  any  leakage  on  the  part  of 
German  Government  officials  that  the  secret  became  known 
in  two  widely  different  quarters.  In  a  manner  that  still 
remains  somewhat  of  a  mystery  the  fact  was  communicated 
to  the  British  Government.    While  the  whole  matter  still 


242   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


remains  to  be  cleared  up,  there  are  one  or  two  outstanding 
facts  that  may  be  used  as  the  basis  of  deductions. 

The  request  for  the  arms  from  Germany  was,  in  the  first 
place,  brought  to  New  York  by  messenger,  since  direct  com- 
munication between  Ireland  and  Berlin  was  impossible.  The 
fact  that  this  messenger  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Proc- 
lamation of  the  Irish  Republic  is  sufficient  proof  of  his  trust- 
worthiness. This  man  brought  the  message  to  New  York, 
and  it  was  then  referred  to  the  officials  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment here.  By  them  it  was  forwarded,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
to  Berlin.  Some  weeks  later  the  officials  in  New  York 
received  a  message  from  the  Imperial  Government  to  the 
effect  that  the  arms  were  being  sent  from  Germany  on  April 
12,  and  would  be  due  in  Ireland  about  Easter  Sunday.  This 
was  the  date  which  had  then  been  arranged  for  the  rising. 
A  few  days  later  Secret  Service  men  made  a  raid  on  the 
offices  of  a  German  Government  official  in  New  York  City, 
removed  certain  papers,  and  within  forty-eight  hours  the 
British  Government  in  London  knew  of  the  impending 
arrival  of  the  arms-laden  vessel  from  Germany.  When  the 
facts  became  known,  the  accusation  was  made  that  this 
information  had  been  conveyed  to  London  from  the  United 
States.  This  was  admitted  at  the  subsequent  inquiry  held  by 
the  British  Government  into  the  causes  of  the  Rebellion. 

The  fact  of  the  arms  being  sent  also  reached  the  ears  of 
Roger  Casement.  In  some  respects  this  was  even  more 
disastrous  than  the  fact  that  the  British  came  to  know  of 
the  plans.  Casement  seems  to  have  become  obsessed  by  the 
idea  that  Ireland  was  about  to  be  drenched  with  blood  without 
a  chance  of  success  in  her  adventure.  At  that  time  he  appears 
to  have  been  suffering  from  melancholia,  and  to  have  had 
the  most  pessimistic  notions  regarding  the  entire  situation, 
both  in  Germany  and  Ireland.  He  would  also  seem  to  have 
been  disappointed  because  he  had  not  been  taken  into  the 
confidence  of  the  leaders,  for  he  contributed  a  lengthy  article, 
early  in  April,  to  the  Munchener  Zeitung  regarding  his  services 
to  Ireland  —  services  which  no  one  knowing  him  ever  ques- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  243 


tioned.  He  also  reviewed  the  reasons  for  his  going  to  Ger- 
many, saying  that  his  main  motive  in  going  to  Berlin  was  to 
obtain  from  the  German  Government  assurances  of  the  good- 
will of  the  German  nation  towards  Ireland  in  order  that  he 
might  "preserve  his  fellow-countrymen  from  participation  in 
a  great  crime."  He  must  also  have  considered  it  necessary 
to  show  that  his  work  had  not  been  without  results,  as  he 
added:  "The  fact  that  England  has  not  succeeded  in  ex- 
tending compulsory  recruiting  to  Ireland,  and  the  admission 
that  Ireland  is  exempt  from  doing  military  service  for  Great 
Britain  or  the  British  Empire,  are  the  best  justification  of 
my  visit  to  Germany. " 

Following  this  declaration,  he  got  into  touch  with  the 
German  authorities,  and  asked  that  he  be  allowed  to  return 
to  Ireland.  This  request  was,  in  the  first  instance,  refused 
on  the  grounds  that  the  enterprise  was  one  of  exceeding 
danger,  and  that  it  would  have  no  useful  results.  Casement, 
however,  persevered  in  his  demands,  and  even  went  so  far  as 
to  state  that  he  wanted  to  get  back  to  Ireland  for  the  purpose 
of  assisting  the  rebels.  That  this  was  not  the  case,  is  known 
to  be  a  fact,  but  that  a  man  of  Sir  Roger's  caliber  should  go 
to  the  length  of  deliberately  misrepresenting  his  motives  is 
sufficient  to  show  his  state  of  mind  and  his  determination  to 
stop,  at  all  costs,  what  he  believed  was  a  fruitless  adventure. 

Meantime,  the  German  Government  was  busy  preparing 
the  consignment  of  arms  for  Ireland.  The  vessel  And  was 
chartered  for  the  purpose,  and  was  loaded  with  20,000  rifles, 
1,000,000  rounds  of  ammunition,  and  15  machine  guns.  The 
rifles  were  part  of  those  which  had  been  captured  from  the 
Russians  during  the  retreat  of  the  armies  of  the  Czar  during 
the  previous  summer,  and  were  all  in  first  class  condition. 
The  vessel  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  special  crew,  and  left 
Germany  on  April  12,  bound  for  Ireland. 

While  this  was  being  done,  Casement  was  still  making 
application  to  the  German  Government  for  transportation  to 
Ireland.  Owing  to  the  manner  in  which  he  represented  his 
reasons  for  wishing  to  make  the  journey,  the  German  officials 


244   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


eventually  gave  him  the  facilities  he  sought,  and  informed 
him  that  a  submarine  would  be  placed  at  his  disposal  in 
which  he  would  be  taken  to  Ireland.  Upon  receipt  of  this 
information  Casement  made  preparations  for  the  journey, 
and  decided  to  take  with  him  two  of  his  companions  in 
Germany,  Captain  Robert  Monteith  and  Private  Daniel 
Bailey  —  the  latter  a  British  soldier  of  Irish  birth  who  had 
been  captured  by  the  Germans  and  became  a  member  of  the 
Irish  Brigade  recruited  by  Casement  in  Germany.  The  party 
left  Germany  in  the  submarine  at  the  same  time  as  the  Audy 
on  April  12. 

Perhaps  nothing  better  illustrates  Casement's  state  of 
mind  at  this  time  than  the  letter  which  he  wrote  on  April  11, 
the  day  before  he  left  Germany,  and  forwarded  to  his  sister, 
Mrs.  Agnes  Newman,  who  was  in  New  York  City  at  the  time. 
This  document  speaks  for  itself: 

My  Dear  Old  Girl:  I  am  going  away  on  a  long  journey  and  may 
not  be  able  to  write  you  again  for  a  long  time  —  perhaps  a  very 
long  time.  I  have  often  thought  of  you  of  late  and  longed  to  see 
you  again,  but  it  has  not  been  possible.  You  did  quite  right  to  go 
to  America,  and  I  was  all  wrong.  A  friend  here  will  see  you  from 
me  later  and  give  you  some  things. 

I  do  hope  I  may  see  you  safe  and  well  when  the  war  is  over,  but 
no  one  can  say  what  will  happen  these  dreadful  days.  It  is  all 
dark  and  black. 

All  my  thoughts  have  been  for  Ireland,  but  I  fear  I  have  done 
very  little,  certainly  not  what  I  tried.  When  we  meet,  it  will  be  a 
happy  day  for  me.  I  feel  so  deeply  for  you,  cut  off  and  alone,  but 
God  grant  you  have  kind  friends  around  you.  They  told  me  you 
were  about  to  become  a  Catholic.    I  hope  so. 

Countess  Bliicher  —  you  remember  her  —  is  near  me.  I  saw  her 
lately,  and  Count  Blucher,  and  they  can  tell  you  something  of  me, 
and  also  another  friend  here.  —  is  my  staunch  friend  over  on  your 
side.  I  often  think  of  you,  my  dearest  old  girl,  and  I  pray  that  all 
may  go  well  with  you  and  that  you  may  be  a  Catholic  and  find 
peace  and  happiness  there. 

Give  the  dear  wee  Gee  my  love  and  kisses  and  Elsie,  too,  both  of 
them.  I  may  not  be  able  to  write  for  a  very  long  time  as  all  the 
ways  are  closed,  and  it  is  so  hard  to  get  letters  across. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  245 


I  trust  if  this  letter  is  intercepted  some  kind  heart  will  send  it 
on  to  you  in  the  end,  that  you  may  know  how  much  I  thought  of 
you  and  felt  for  you  in  these  dark,  awful  days.  I  only  hope  now 
for  peace  and  goodwill  and  all  this  dreadful  nightmare  of  horror 
gone  away. 

Some  day  you  will  know  all  about  it.  Good-bye,  my  dearest  and 
truest  companion  of  so  many  years,  and  keep  me  always  in  your 
heart. 

This,  obviously,  is  not  the  letter  of  an  Irish  rebel  leader 
going  to  the  firing  of  the  first  shot  of  his  rebellion.  Rather 
is  it  the  last  word  of  one  who  knows  that  he  is  going  to  his 
death,  wTho  feels  that  his  fate  is  sealed,  but  who  is  resolved 
to  sacrifice  his  life  in  what  he  considers  a  noble  and  righteous 
cause. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 
A  Romance  of  the  Sea 

THE  whole  course  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1916  is  set 
with  one  romance  after  another.    This  is  due  to 
the  extraordinary  circumstances  that  surround  almost 
every  phase  of  what  is  one  of  the  most  impressive  chapters 
in  the  history  of  Ireland. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  episode  of  the  Rebellion  was  that 
concerned  with  the  two  expeditions  which  left  Germany  for 
Ireland  on  April  12.  It  is  not  certain  whether  those  on 
board  the  Aud  were  aware  of  the  fact  that  a  submarine  with 
Sir  Roger  Casement  on  board  left  the  same  day;  the  pre- 
sumption is  that  they  were  not.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
Sir  Roger  Casement  did  not  know  that  the  Aud  had  left 
port.  He  did  know  that  a  consignment  of  arms  had  been 
asked  for  by  the  Irish  leaders,  and  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment had  promised  to  grant  that  request.  He  may  also 
have  known  some  details  concerning  the  consignment  of  arms 
that  the  Aud  was  carrying,  but  it  will  shortly  appear  that 
his  information  was  not  altogether  accurate.  If  it  was,  he 
made  representations  later  that  certainly  were  not  correct. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  commander  of  the  German  sub- 
marine was  certainly  aware  of  the  suspicions  which  the  Irish 
leaders  entertained  regarding  Casement  —  suspicions,  as  has 
already  been  pointed  out,  that  in  no  way  reflected  on  his 
personal  honor  or  sincerity.  These  suspicions  had  been 
communicated  to  the  German  commander  by  his  Government 
and  he  was  ordered  to  proceed  slowly  to  Ireland,  so  that  the 
Aud  would  have  ample  time  to  land  her  cargo  before  Case- 
ment could  interfere  with  it  or  with  the  plans  of  the  Irish 
leaders.  The  Aud  was  not  a  slow  vessel;  yet,  owing  to  the 
conditions  at  sea  which  she  had  to  contend  with,  it  was 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


247 


probable  that  the  submarine  would  otherwise  make  Ireland  in 
better  time.  For  the  U-boat  could  travel  in  comparative 
security  all  the  way,  and  would  not  be  obliged  to  go  out  of 
her  course  to  avoid  giving  rise  to  suspicion.  These  were  facts 
that  were  taken  fully  into  consideration  by  the  commander 
of  the  submarine,  and  he  therefore  determined  on  a  course  of 
action  that  would,  in  his  estimation,  make  certain  the  arrival 
of  the  Aud  before  Casement. 

With  this  object  in  view,  the  submarine  commander  put 
in  at  Heligoland,  stating  that  his  vessel  needed  repairs. 
Whether  this  was  so  or  not,  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  a  fact  that 
for  two  weeks  Casement  was  forced  to  remain  in  idleness  on 
the  shores  of  the  island  under  circumstances  which  must  have 
been  maddening  to  a  man  in  his  position.  He  had  no  possible 
chance  of  getting  into  communication  with  the  men  in  Ireland; 
he  was  absolutely  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  was 
uncertain,  up  to  the  last  minute,  as  to  when  he  would  be 
able  to  resume  his  journey.  As  the  days  passed  by,  he  did 
not  know  but  that  the  rebellion  he  was  risking  his  life  to 
avert  had  already  broken  out.  The  delay  was  continued 
from  one  day  to  another  till  it  must  have  seemed  as  if  he  was 
doomed  to  perpetual  exile  on  that  lonely  coast.  At  last, 
after  two  weeks  of  this  mental  agony,  the  submarine  com- 
mander announced  that  the  repairs  to  his  vessel  had  been 
completed,  and  Casement,  looking  almost  a  shadow  of  the 
man  he  had  been,  resumed  his  interrupted  journey. 

In  the  meantime  the  Aud  had  been  slowly  threading  her 
perilous  path  through  enemy  waters  towards  the  coast  of 
Ireland.  Although  she  flew  at  times  a  neutral  flag,  she  was 
well  aware  that  this  was  no  protection  against  inspection  by 
the  British,  who  were  holding  up  all  neutral  trade  and  making 
seizures  of  mail  and  whatever  else  attracted  their  suspicions 
or  their  fancy.  Going  far  out  of  her  course,  she  traveled  by 
unfrequented  paths,  if  such  could  be  said  of  any  part  of  her 
route.  Her  pace  was  slow  in  the  daytime,  but  at  night  she 
crowded  on  all  possible  speed,  dashing  through  the  dark  with 
all  lights  out  and  three  lookout  men   posted,  taking  her 


248   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


chances  of  mines  or  collisions  as  necessary  parts  of  her  mission 
to  the  assistance  of  the  men  of  Ireland. 

The  naval  exploits  of  the  Germans  during  the  great  war 
furnish  several  of  the  most  thrilling  chapters  of  adventure  and 
disregard  of  peril  that  have  ever  been  written  in  the  age-long 
annals  of  the  sea,  but  none  of  them  deserve  a  higher  place 
than  the  voyage  of  the  Aud.  From  her  commander  to  the 
last  man  in  her  crew  there  was  not  a  man  who  did  not  know 
that  he  was  facing  almost  certain  death,  if  they  failed  in 
their  hazardous  enterprise.  These  men  were  taking  the  risks, 
not  on  behalf  of  their  own  Fatherland,  but  for  a  country 
which  it  is  very  possible  none  of  them  had  even  seen.  While 
it  is  true  that  they  were  acting  under  the  orders  of  the  German 
Government,  the  crew  was  made  up  entirely  of  volunteers. 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  Germany  had  made  no  demands 
upon  Ireland,  or  upon  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  Republicans. 
Germany  asked  nothing  of  Ireland.  It  is  true  that  a  success- 
ful rebellion  in  Ireland  would  have  been  welcome  for  merely 
selfish  reasons  to  the  German  Government,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  but  fair  to  state  that  that  Government  asked  no 
guarantees  of  Ireland,  and  that  the  men  of  the  Aud  volun- 
tarily took  their  lives  in  their  hands  from  purely  noble  and 
unselfish  motives. 

During  the  first  couple  of  days  at  sea  the  Aud  managed  to 
evade  notice.  The  patrols  of  the  British  fleet  must  have  been 
lacking  in  vigilance,  for  not  even  the  smoke  of  a  warship  was 
sighted.  Towards  the  close  of  the  third  day,  however,  a  little 
excitement  was  forthcoming  to  break  the  monotony.  The 
sun  had  just  dipped  below  the  edge  of  the  horizon  when  a 
heavy  streak  of  black  smoke,  blowing  westward  across  the 
prow  of  the  Aud,  rose  to  disclose  the  dark  and  ugly  hull  of  a 
destroyer.  The  Aud  began,  little  by  little,  to  deflect  her 
course  some  points  to  the  south,  so  as  to  veer  away  from  the 
rapidly  approaching  craft. 

It  seemed,  however,  that  the  destroyer  was  not  to  be  misled 
by  tactics  such  as  these.  Coming  on  with  a  big  burst  of 
speed,  the  warship  raced  to  cross  the  path  of  the  German 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  249 


vessel.  The  men  on  the  Aud  now  recognized  that  the  stranger 
was  a  Britisher,  and  preparations  were  at  once  made  to  sink 
the  Aud  rather  than  allow  its  cargo  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemy.  At  the  same  time  the  German  captain  kept 
changing  his  course  to  the  south  in  order  to  defer  the  fatal 
encounter  as  long  as  might  be. 

Fortune  favored  the  merchantman  on  this  occasion.  The 
April  twilight  was  fast  fading  when  the  destroyer,  now 
apparently  convinced  that  there  was  something  worthy  of 
investigation  about  the  seemingly  inoffensive  merchantman, 
ran  up  a  signal  to  halt.  Trusting  to  the  fact  that  the  in- 
creasing darkness  might  be  accepted  as  an  excuse  for  not 
seeing  the  signal,  the  German  captain  ignored  it  altogether 
and  veered  his  course  still  further  to  the  south.  Then  a 
tongue  of  flame  was  seen  to  flash  from  the  warship,  and  a 
shot  splashed  ahead  of  the  Aud  as  a  last  warning  to  heave  to. 
The  reply  of  the  Aud  was  to  crowd  on  all  steam,  and  dash 
into  the  darkness  that  had  now  descended  like  a  pall  over  the 
sea.  Another  shot  followed  the  first,  and  came  dangerously 
close  to  the  fugitive.  But  pitch-like  darkness  had  now  en- 
veloped the  scene,  and,  with  every  light  doused,  the  Aud 
turned  suddenly  on  her  course,  striking  sharp  towards  the 
north.  Every  second  her  crew  expected  to  see  the  searchlight 
from  the  destroyer  sweep  over  the  waves,  which  were  rising 
rapidly  under  a  stiff  northwesterly  wind.  But,  for  some 
reason,  their  expectations  were  not  realized.  There  were  a 
couple  more  spurts  of  flame  as  the  warship  sent  random  shots 
shrieking  into  the  darkness.  The  second  of  these  was  away 
to  the  south,  so  that  it  was  apparent  the  maneuver  of  the 
Aud  had  been  successful,  and  that  the  destroyer  had  not 
discovered  the  German  ruse.  The  wind  was  then  blowing  a 
gale,  and  the  Aud  pressed  on  steam  and  followed  on  her 
course. 

A  few  days  later  the  vessel  ran  within  sight  of  a  British 
submarine  which  was  traveling  on  the  surface.  The  enemy 
submersible,  however,  passed  within  half  a  mile  of  the  German 
ship  without  taking  the  slightest  notice  of  her.    The  crew  of 


250   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  Aud  gathered  at  the  rail  to  look  at  the  British  vessel  going 
past,  and  went  so  far  as  to  wave  their  caps  in  salutation. 
But  the  enemy  passed  without  acknowledgment,  and  this 
danger  was  also  safely  surmounted.  A  little  later  the  same 
day  an  incoming  Scandinavian-American  liner,  Oscar  II,  Mr. 
Ford's  famous  Peace  Ship,  was  sighted  and  greetings  ex- 
changed. The  rest  of  the  voyage,  with  the  exception  of  its 
termination,  passed  without  incident. 

It  is  not  uninteresting  to  note  that  the  much-vaunted 
blockade  which  the  British  Order  in  Council  established  to 
prevent  food  getting  to  Germany,  did  not  seem  to  be  very 
much  in  evidence.  With  the  single  exception  of  the  de- 
stroyer, the  Aud  saw  nothing  that  challenged  its  right  of  way. 
The  mighty  British  fleet  seemed  to  have  vanished  off  the 
face  of  the  waters. 

On  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  April  19,  the  lookout  on  the 
Aud  reported  land  ahead.  This  was  the  Kerry  Coast,  and 
the  Captain,  his  destination  in  sight,  decided  to  lay  off  for 
the  night.  He  had  made  the  voyage  in  shorter  time  than  he 
had  expected,  and  it  was  probable  that  those  to  whom  the 
arms  were  being  consigned  would  not  be  on  hand  to  meet 
him  if  he  made  a  landing.  The  coast  is  well  indented,  and 
he  decided  that  he  would  have  plenty  of  shelter  for  a  week  if 
need  be.  Not  being  acquainted  with  the  coast,  he  also  decided 
to  defer  going  in  further  till  the  next  morning,  when  he  would 
be  better  able  to  pick  his  way.  Therefore,  the  Aud  lay  off 
the  Irish  coast  for  the  night,  with  all  lights  out  and  under 
easy  steam,  and  awaited  the  coming  of  the  dawn. 

Early  the  following  morning,  Thursday,  April  20,  the  Aud 
began  to  move  in  towards  the  coast.  An  hour  later  smoke 
was  sighted  trailing  away  on  the  horizon  towards  Queenstown. 
It  was  thought  at  first  that  this  might  be  some  passing  liner, 
but  it  soon  became  evident  that  it  was  another  British 
man-of-war,  this  time  an  armored  cruiser.  On  sighting  the 
Aud,  this  vessel  turned  directly  towards  the  German  vessel, 
and  increased  its  speed  at  the  same  time. 

Consternation  reigned  aboard  the  Aud,  for  on  this  occasion 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  251 


there  was  no  favoring  darkness  or  high  sea  to  facilitate  escape. 
Furthermore,  it  was  immediately  obvious  that  the  new  arrival 
was  determined  to  come  to  close  quarters  with  the  Aud  and, 
under  the  circumstances,  investigation  meant  certain  capture. 
The  Aud  still  pressed  on  towards  the  Irish  coast,  in  the  forlorn 
hope  that  aid  might  be  forthcoming  from  that  quarter,  but 
the  glasses  revealed  that  the  coast  was  desolate  and  deserted, 
and  the  conviction  grew  on  the  captain  and  the  crew  that 
they  had  arrived  too  soon,  and  would  be  left  to  their  fate. 

The  And  was  still  well  out  from  the  coast  when  a  shot 
from  the  British  cruiser  carried  the  first  peremptory  command 
to  halt.  The  Captain  and  his  officers  were  on  the  bridge, 
and  watched  the  spray  spring  up  where  the  shell  struck  the 
water  only  a  few  feet  ahead  of  them.  It  was  bitter  that  they 
should  fail  when  thus  in  sight  of  their  goal,  but  their  minds 
were  made  up  now,  as  they  had  been  before  they  had  started 
on  their  journey.  They  might  not  be  able  to  deliver  their 
cargo  into  the  hands  of  the  men  who  had  asked  them  for  it, 
but  they  would  certainly  never  allow  it  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy. 

A  contemptuous  disregard  was  the  only  notice  taken  of  the 
warning  shot,  but  now  the  Captain  of  the  Aud  gave  two  curt 
orders,  and  his  junior  officer  ran  down  from  the  bridge  to 
have  them  carried  out.  The  enemy  cruiser  was  now  within 
close  range,  and  the  Aud  was  still  going  full  speed  ahead.  A 
hoarse  command  was  roared  through  a  trumpet  from  the 
cruiser.  At  the  same  moment,  as  though  in  reply,  the  German 
flag  broke  from  the  masthead  of  the  Aud,  to  be  greeted  with 
a  ringing  cheer  from  the  crew.  The  cruiser  swerved  a  point 
or  two  in  her  oncoming  course  as  though  in  amazement  at 
the  audacity  of  her  diminutive  foe,  and  then  a  second  shot 
from  the  warship  whistled  overhead.  While  the  gunners  were 
lowering  their  pieces  to  get  the  range  for  a  more  effective 
blow,  the  deck  of  the  Aud  flew  into  the  air.  There  was  a 
thundering  rumble,  a  burst  of  smoke  and  a  sheet  of  flame, 
and,  before  the  British  were  able  to  realize  what  was  happen- 
ing, the  Aud,  with  her  colors  flying  at  her  solitary  mast,  her 


252   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


sides  gaping  wide  to  the  waves,  filled  and  sank.  Her  crew 
had  blown  her  up  rather  than  surrender.  The  British  had 
been  robbed  of  their  prey. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  warning  conveyed  to  the  British 
Government,  which  immediately  established  a  cruiser  patrol, 
the  Aud  would  have  delivered  her  cargo  in  Ireland  into  the 
hands  of  the  Irish  Republicans,  waiting  under  arms  to  receive 
them.  That  warning,  besides  its  other  effects,  was  responsible 
for  the  death  of  the  men  on  the  Aud  —  as  gallant  a  skipper 
and  as  gallant  a  crew  as  ever  set  sail  on  the  high  seas.  But 
for  that  warning  one  of  the  most  daring  expeditions  in  naval 
history  would  certainly  have  been  crowned  with  success. 

Late  that  night,  while  the  wreck  of  what  had  been  the  Aud 
was  lying  a  mile  or  more  out  at  sea,  the  submarine  carrying 
Roger  Casement  and  his  two  companions  was  lying  submerged 
almost  on  the  same  spot.  When  the  first  thin  streak  of  light 
heralded  the  coming  of  another  day,  she  rose  to  the  surface 
and  picked  her  way  towards  the  coast.  This  was  Friday, 
April  21.  Having  approached  as  close  as  she  could,  the 
submarine  let  down  a  collapsible  boat  over  the  side,  and  three 
men  rowed  ashore.  They  pulled  the  boat  a  little  way  up  on 
the  sand  and  turned  to  wave  a  farewell  to  the  submarine. 
But  that  vessel  had  vanished.  Casement  and  his  two  friends 
walked  inland  and  were  also  soon  out  of  sight. 

They  had  barely  disappeared  when  another  figure  was  seen 
coming  along  the  strand.  This  was  a  fisherman.  He  paused 
when  he  saw  the  stranded  boat  that  had  been  left  behind. 
He  then  stooped  and  began  curiously  to  examine  the  foot- 
prints that  remained  in  the  soft  sand  left  by  the  ebbing  tide. 


CHAPTER  XL 


Planning  a  Pogrom 

DURING  the  period  which  elapsed  between  the  end  of 
March  and  the  arrival  of  Roger  Casement  in  Ireland, 
the  British  military  and  Government  officials  were 
prosecuting,  with  greater  severity  than  ever,  that  policy  which 
had,  in  the  first  instance,  been  the  cause  of  the  beginnings 
of  the  trouble,  and  the  continuance  of  which  had  forced  the 
Irish  leaders  to  the  conclusion  that  they  had  either  to  strike 
a  blow  for  their  own  liberties  or  fight  for  England  against  a 
friendly  power. 

Early  in  the  month  of  April  it  became  known  that  the 
Government  had  under  very  serious  consideration  the  seizure 
of  all  arms  found  in  the  possession  of  Irish  Volunteers,  and 
the  deportation  to  England  and  Scotland  of  all  the  leaders 
of  that  organization.  The  feeling  against  the  acts  that  had 
already  been  committed  in  the  name  of  the  law  by  the  mili- 
tary and  the  open  insult  and  provocation  to  which  the  Vol- 
unteers and  their  leaders  were  subjected  daily  in  the  streets 
of  Dublin  by  British  officers,  brought  about  a  series  of 
public  meetings  which  were  held  on  April  7,  1916.  These 
meetings  were  held  to  protest  against  the  deportation  orders 
and  to  enlist  recruits  for  the  Irish  Volunteers.  The  speeches 
delivered  at  these  meetings  were  in  the  plainest  of  plain 
language,  and  told  the  Government  that  the  actions  of  its 
officials,  if  persisted  in,  would  inevitably  lead  to  an  open 
breach,  and  that  any  attempt  to  disarm  the  Volunteers  would 
result  in  some  persons  being  shot. 

On  the  same  day,  April  7,  Francis  Sheehy-Skeffington,  a 
man  of  brilliant  attainments  who  was  not  connected  with  the 
Volunteers  or  any  of  the  various  organizations  affiliated  with 
them,  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Sidney  Webb,  the  editor  of 


254   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


a  London  magazine,  The  New  Statesman,  in  which  he  pointed 
out,  with  almost  prophetic  vision,  the  result  of  the  course  on 
which  the  Government  in  Ireland  had  embarked.  The  editor 
printed  the  letter  weeks  after  the  Rebellion  was  at  an  end, 
saying  that  he  had  laid  it  aside  in  a  pigeon-hole  when  he 
received  it,  and  had  not  published  it  because  he  "did  not 
think  that  to  do  so  would  serve  any  useful  purpose."  The 
reader  can  best  judge  of  the  useful  purpose  its  publication 
might  have  served,  when  he  views  the  events  that  followed 
within  two  weeks  of  the  writing  of  the  letter.  The  letter 
read  as  follows: 

To  the  Editor  of  The  New  Statesman: 

Sir,  —  The  situation  in  Ireland  is  extremely  grave.  Thanks  to 
the  silence  of  the  daily  press,  the  military  authorities  are  pursuing 
their  Prussian  plans  in  Ireland  unobserved  by  the  British  public; 
and,  when  the  explosion  which  they  have  provoked  occurs,  they 
will  endeavor  to  delude  the  British  public  as  to  where  the  responsi- 
bility lies.  I  write  in  the  hope  that,  despite  war-fever,  there  may  be 
enough  sanity  and  common  sense  left  to  restrain  the  militarists 
while  there  is  yet  time. 

I  will  not  take  up  your  space  by  recounting  the  events  that  have 
led  up  to  the  present  situation  —  the  two  years'  immunity  accorded 
Sir  Edward  Carson's  Volunteers  in  their  defiant  illegalities,  the  sys- 
tematic persecution  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  from  the  moment  of  their 
formation  {nine  months  before  the  war),  the  militarist  provocations, 
raids  on  printing  offices,  arbitrary  deportations  and  savage  sentences 
which  have  punctuated  Mr.  Redmond's  recruiting  appeals  for  the 
past  eighteen  months.  As  a  result  of  this  recent  series  of  events, 
Irish  Nationalist  and  labor  opinion  is  now  in  a  state  of  extreme  ex- 
asperation. Recruiting  for  the  British  army  is  dead;  recruiting  for 
the  Irish  Volunteers  has,  at  the  moment,  almost  reached  the  mark 
of  1000  per  week  —  which  is  Lord  Wimborne's  demand  for  the 
British  army.  A  special  stimulus  has  been  given  to  the  Irish  Volun- 
teer movement  by  the  arrest  and  threatened  forcible  deportation  — 
at  the  moment  of  writing  it  is  still  uncertain  whether  the  threat  will 
be  carried  out  —  of  two  of  its  most  active  organizers. 

There  are  two  distinct  danger-points  in  the  position.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Irish  Volunteers  are  prepared,  if  any  attempt  is  made 
forcibly  to  disarm  them,  to  resist,  and  to  defend  their  rifles  with 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  255 


their  lives.  In  the  second  place,  the  Irish  Citizen  Army  (The  Labor 
Volunteers)  are  prepared  to  offer  similar  resistance,  not  only  to  dis- 
armament, but  to  any  attack  upon  the  Press  which  turns  out  The 
Workers'  Republic  —  successor  to  the  suppressed  Irish  Worker  — 
which  is  printed  in  Liberty  Hall. 

There  is  no  bluff  in  either  case.  That  was  shown  (1)  in  Tulla- 
more  on  March  20th,  when  an  attempt  at  disarming  the  small  local 
corps  of  Irish  Volunteers  was  met  with  revolver  shots  and  a  police- 
man was  wounded  —  fortunately  not  seriously;  (2)  in  Dublin,  on 
March  24th,  and  following  days,  when,  at  the  rumor  of  an  intended 
raid  on  The  Worker  s  Republic,  the  Irish  Citizen  Army  stood  guard 
day  and  night  in  Liberty  Hall  —  many  of  them  having  thrown  up 
their  jobs  to  answer  promptly  the  mobilization  order  —  armed  and 
prepared  to  sell  their  lives  dearly.  The  British  military  authorities 
in  Ireland  know  perfectly  well  that  the  members  of  both  these  or- 
ganizations are  earnest,  determined  men.  If,  knowing  this,  General 
Friend  and  his  subordinate  militarists  proceed  either  to  disarm  the 
Volunteers  or  to  raid  the  Labor  Press,  it  can  only  be  because  they 
want  bloodshed  —  because  they  want  to  provoke  another  '98,  and 
to  get  an  excuse  for  a  machine-gun  massacre. 

Irish  pacifists  who  have  watched  the  situation  closely  are  con- 
vinced that  this  is  precisely  what  the  militarists  do  want.  The 
younger  English  officers  in  Dublin  make  no  secret  of  their  eagerness 
"to  have  a  whack  at  the  Sinn  Feiners";  they  would  much  rather 
fight  them  than  the  Germans.  They  are  spurred  on  by  the  Carson- 
Northcliffe  conscriptionist  gang  in  London;  on  April  oth  The  Morn- 
ing Post  vehemently  demanded  the  suppression  of  The  Worker  s 
Republic;  on  April  6th  a  question  was  put  down  in  the  House  of 
Commons  urging  Mr.  Birrell  to  disarm  the  Irish  Volunteers.  These 
gentry  know  well  the  precise  points  where  a  pogrom  can  most  easily 
be  started. 

Twice  already  General  Friend  has  been  on  the  point  of  setting 
Ireland  in  a  blaze  —  once  last  November,  when  he  had  a  warrant 
made  out  for  the  arrest  of  Bishop  O'Dwyer,  of  Limerick;  once  on 
March  25th,  when  he  had  a  detachment  of  soldiers  with  machine 
guns  in  readiness  to  raid  Liberty  Hall.  In  both  cases  Mr.  Birrell 
intervened  in  the  nick  of  time  and  decisively  vetoed  the  militarist 
plans.  But  some  day  Mr.  Birrell  may  be  overborne  or  may  inter- 
vene too  late.  Then,  once  bloodshed  is  started  in  Ireland,  who  can 
say  where  or  how  it  will  end? 

In  the  midst  of  the  worldwide  carnage,  bloodshed  In  our  little 


256   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


island  may  seem  a  trivial  thing.  The  wiping  out  of  all  the  Irish 
Volunteers  and  Labor  Volunteers  would  hardly  involve  as  much 
slaughter  as  the  single  battle  of  Loos.  Doubtless  that  is  the  mili- 
tarist calculation  —  that  their  crime  may  be  overlooked  in  a  world 
of  criminals.  Accordingly,  the  nearer  peace  comes,  the  more  eager 
will  they  be  to  force  a  conflict  before  their  chance  vanishes.  Is  there 
in  Great  Britain  enough  real  sympathy  with  Small  Nationalities, 
enough  real  hatred  of  militarism,  to  frustrate  this  Pogrom  Plot  of 
British  Militarist  Junkerdom? 

Yours,  etc., 

F.  Sheehy-Skeffington. 

April,  7th,  1916. 

The  day  after  this  was  written  the  Chief  Commissioner  of 
the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  made  a  report  to  the  Under- 
secretary, and  that  document  shows  clearly  the  view  that 
Colonel  Edgeworth-Johnson  took  of  the  situation,  especially 
in  regard  to  the  recruiting  meetings  of  the  Irish  Volunteers, 
for  he  says,  in  part: 

These  recruiting  meetings  are  a  very  undesirable  development, 
and  are,  I  think,  causing  both  annoyance  and  uneasiness  amongst 
loyal  citizens.  .  .  .  The  Sinn  Fein  Party  are  gaining  in  numbers,  in 
equipment,  in  discipline,  and  in  confidence,  and  I  think  drastic 
action  should  be  taken  to  limit  their  activities.  The  longer  it  is 
postponed,  the  more  difficult  it  will  be  to  carry  out. 

On  April  10  this  report  reached  the  Undersecretary,  who 
wrote  on  it:  "Chief  Secretary  and  Lord  Lieutenant  to  see 
the  Chief  Commissioner's  minute."  On  April  12  the  Chief 
Secretary  wrote  upon  it:  "Requires  careful  consideration. 
Is  it  thought  practicable  to  undertake  a  policy  of  disarma- 
ment, and,  if  so,  within  what  limits,  if  any,  can  it  be  circum- 
scribed ?"  Upon  the  same  day  the  Lord  Lieutenant  wTrote 
upon  it:  "This  is  a  difficult  point.  Could  the  disarming  be 
satisfactorily  effected?" 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  little  by  little  the  efforts  of 
those  who  were  desirous  of  causing  bloodshed  were  forcing 
the  hand  of  the  Chief  Secretary,  who  had  certainly,  up  to  this 
time,  done  all  in  his  power  to  keep  the  peace,  and  had  reso- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  £57 


lutely  refused  to  allow  himself  to  be  made  the  catspaw  of 
those  who  were  anxious  for  a  massacre.  It  is  probably  owing 
to  this  that  he  was  forced  to  shoulder  the  responsibility  at  a 
later  period. 

The  arrest  of  the  two  Volunteer  organizers,  Ernest  Blythe 
and  William  Mellows,  which  has  already  been  recorded, 
aroused  a  storm  of  protest  throughout  the  country.  It  was 
judged,  and  rightly,  that  this  was  but  the  prelude  to  further 
arrests,  and  that  a  policy  of  disarming  the  Irish  Volunteers,  of 
interning  their  leaders  in  England  and  of  then  enforcing 
conscription  in  Ireland,  was  being  inaugurated  by  the  Govern- 
ment. On  April  9,  Blythe  and  Mellows  were  removed  from 
Dublin  to  Kingstown  under  military  escort  en  route  for 
England,  and  close  on  two  thousand  of  the  Dublin  Volunteers 
paraded  through  the  streets  of  the  city  that  same  day  as  a 
protest.  This  was  an  entirely  peaceful  protest  without  any 
attempt  at  violence,  the  only  object  of  the  demonstrators 
being  to  show  the  authorities  that  the  policy  they  were  pur- 
suing was  one  that  might  have  disastrous  results  if  carried  any 
further. 

On  the  following  day,  April  10,  another  significant  incident 
took  place.  Shortly  before  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
another  parade  of  two  companies  of  the  Volunteers  was  being 
held,  and  the  men  were  marching  from  Grafton  Street  to 
Stephen's  Green  West.  A  trolley  car,  bound  from  Nelson's 
Pillar  to  Terenure,  was  coming  along  and  the  driver  shouted 
to  the  Volunteers  to  get  out  of  his  way,  at  the  same  time 
announcing  in  very  vile  language  that,  if  they  did  not,  he 
would  run  the  car  over  them.  At  this  an  Irish  Volunteer 
cyclist  jumped  off  his  machine,  placed  the  bicycle  in  front  of 
the  trolley  car,  opened  his  revolver  pouch,  put  his  hand  on 
the  stock  of  the  weapon,  and  told  the  motorman  to  carry 
out  his  threat.  The  latter  lapsed  into  silence,  and  held  his 
car  where  it  was  until  the  Volunteers  had  passed.  The 
cyclist  then  mounted  his  machine  and  rejoined  his  comrades. 
The  motorman  lost  no  time  in  reporting  the  incident  to  the 
police,  who,  in  turn,  reported  the  insolence  of  the  mere  Irish 


258   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


to  the  Chief  Secretary  with  another  request  that  he  take 
action. 

Mr.  Redmond  and  his  friends  were  not  inclined  to  take  much 
notice  of  this  incident.  They  did  not  like  to  think  that  an 
Irishman  would  dare  to  tell  a  trolley-car  driver  to  halt,  while 
the  Irish  Volunteers  passed  in  front  of  it.  Redmond's  official 
organ,  The  Freeman's  Journal,  however,  begged  that  the 
Castle  authorities  might  not  be  too  harsh  on  the  men.  Refer- 
ring editorially  to  the  incident,  The  Freeman  said: 

This  was  a  very  reprehensible  proceeding.  But  it  is  the  sort  of 
behavior  which  it  is  easy  for  the  authorities  to  take  too  seriously. 
There  are  hotheads  in  the  Sinn  Fein  movement  who  would  be  de- 
lighted if  they  could  induce,  not  merely  tram  conductors,  but  the 
highest  military  authorities,  to  "come  along."  But  it  seems  evident 
to  the  ordinary  man  of  common  sense  that,  the  hotter  the  heads  of 
the  Sinn  Feiners,  the  cooler  should  be  the  heads  of  those  responsible 
for  public  order.  .  .  .  They  are  urged  constantly  in  the  English 
Press  to  "make  examples"  of  the  Sinn  Feiners,  and  "stamp  out" 
their  movement.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  result  is  worth  the 
trouble.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  advice  is  honestly  motived. 
It  comes  from  people  who  think  they  see  political  profit  from  scenes 
of  violence  in  Ireland.  If  it  is  a  good  rule  to  do  nothing  during  the 
war  to  gratify  the  Germans,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  wisest 
course  for  the  authorities.  The  German  papers  and  the  German- 
subsidized  journals  in  the  United  States  would  welcome  any  such 
excuse  for  representing  Ireland  as  hostile  to  the  war  as  would  be 
afforded  by  some  of  the  methods  so  often  urged  on  those  civilians 
and  soldiers  responsible  for  the  peace  of  Ireland.  .  .  .  There  is  cer- 
tainly no  disaffection  in  Ireland  that  would  make  "stamping  it  out" 
a  necessary  or  a  useful  process. 

This  in  spite  of  the  facts  that  were  in  Redmond's  possession 
at  the  time,  as  has  been  shown  by  the  official  letter  of  the 
previous  December.  It  will  be  interesting  to  note  that  the 
main  reason  why  The  Freeman  did  not  want  the  stamping 
out  process  was  because  it  might  be  a  satisfaction  to  the 
Germans  during  the  war.  After  the  war,  forsooth,  things 
might  be  dealt  with  differently.    It  is  curious  to  find  a  self- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  259 


styled  Irish  newspaper  thus  discussing  a  stand  which  any 
spirited  man  would  have  taken  in  answer  to  a  vulgar  insult, 
whether  from  a  trolley  driver  or  anyone  else.  It  is  evident 
that  The  Freeman  and  those  for  whom  it  spoke  had  little 
manhood  and  much  less  nationality  left. 

On  the  same  day  that  this  nonsense  was  printed,  news 
leaked  out  showing  that  the  military  hotheads  were  at  work. 
It  had  apparently  become  known  to  the  police  authorities,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  no  secret  was  made  about  it,  that  a 
consignment  of  small  arms  was  being  conveyed  from  Wexford 
to  either  the  Irish  Volunteers  or  the  Citizen  Army  in  Dublin 
on  the  afternoon  of  April  9.  Both  the  Volunteers  and  the 
Citizen  Army  were  engaged  in  drill  and  other  exercises  that 
afternoon,  following  a  parade  held  earlier  in  the  day. 

All  the  police  at  the  command  of  the  Castle  were  on  watch 
for  developments.  There  was  a  thrill  among  the  men  in  blue 
when  an  automobile,  bearing  the  communicated  number, 
entered  the  city  from  a  southerly  direction  shortly  after 
half -past  four  in  the  afternoon.  At  the  corner  of  Grafton 
Street  and  College  Green  the  car  was  halted  by  the  police, 
and  it  and  those  in  it  were  taken  to  the  Great  Brunswick 
Street  police  station.  No  resistance  was  offered  by  the  driver, 
who  was  accompanied  by  another  young  man.  The  two  men 
gave  their  names  as  Joseph  Coyle  and  Patrick  Kenny,  and 
said  that  they  had  come  from  Ferns,  County  Wexford.  On  the 
car  being  searched,  it  was  found  to  contain  fourteen  rifles 
and  three  revolvers.  These  were  confiscated  and  so  was  the 
car.  The  two  men  were  held  pending  an  investigation  by  the 
military  authorities. 

With  this  incident  the  efforts  of  the  military  to  force  the 
hand  of  the  Volunteers  were  redoubled.  Possibly  they  felt 
that  the  time  to  make  any  conciliatory  overtures  had  passed, 
and  that  the  only  thing  left  to  them  to  do  was  to  force  a 
premature  rising  and  to  have  their  men  and  machine  guns 
posted  ready  to  mow  down  the  Volunteers  should  they  make 
any  attempt  to  resist  the  order  for  disarmament. 

Then,  on  Wednesday,  April  19,  came  the  dramatic  dis- 


260   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


closure  of  the  actual  orders  which  the  planners  of  the  pogrom 
had  secretly  issued  to  the  military.  This  was  read  in  open 
session  at  the  meeting  of  the  Dublin  Corporation  by  Alderman 
Thomas  Kelly,  who  said  that  it  had  been  furnished  to  him 
by  Mr.  Little,  the  editor  of  New  Ireland.  The  document 
reads,  in  part,  as  follows: 

The  following  precautionary  measures  have  been  sanctioned  by 
the  Irish  Office  on  the  recommendation  of  the  General  Officer  Com- 
manding the  Forces  in  Ireland.  All  preparations  will  be  made  to  put 
these  measures  in  force  immediately  on  receipt  of  an  order  issued 
from  the  Chief  Secretary's  Office,  Dublin  Castle,  and  signed  by  the 
Undersecretary  and  the  General  Officer  Commanding  the  Forces 
in  Ireland.  First,  the  following  persons  are  to  be  placed  under 
arrest :  —  All  members  of  the  Sinn  Fein  National  Council,  the  Cen- 
tral Executive  Irish  Sinn  Fein  Volunteers,  General  Council  Irish 
Sinn  Fein  Volunteers,  County  Board  Irish  Sinn  Fein  Volunteers, 
Executive  Committee  National  Volunteers,  Coisde  Gonta  Commit- 
tee Gaelic  League.  See  list  A3  and  4  and  supplementary  list  A 2. 
.  .  .  Metropolitan  Police  and  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  forces  in 
Dublin  City  will  be  confined  to  barracks  under  the  direction  of 
the  Competent  Military  Authority.  An  order  will  be  issued  to  in- 
habitants of  city  to  remain  in  their  houses  until  such  time  as  the 
Competent  Military  Authority  may  otherwise  direct  or  permit. 
Pickets  chosen  from  units  of  Territorial  forces  will  be  placed  at 
all  points  marked  on  Maps  3  and  4.  Accompanying  mounted 
patrols  will  continuously  visit  all  points  and  report  every  hour. 
The  following  premises  will  be  occupied  by  adequate  forces,  and 
all  necessary  measures  used  without  need  of  reference  to  Head- 
quarters. First,  premises  known  as  Liberty  Hall,  Beresford  Place; 
No.  6  Harcourt  street,  Sinn  Fein  Building;  No.  2  Dawson  street, 
Headquarters  Volunteers;  No.  12  D'Olier  street,  "Nationality" 
Office;  No.  25  Rutland  Square,  Gaelic  League  Office;  No.  41  Rut- 
land Square,  Forester's  Hall;  Sinn  Fein  Volunteer  premises  in  City; 
all  National  Volunteer  premises  in  city;  Trades  Council  premises, 
Capel  street;  Surrey  House,  Leinster  Road,  Rathmines.  The  fol- 
lowing premises  will  be  isolated,  and  all  communication  to  or  from 
prevented: — premises  known  as  Archbishop's  House,  Drumcondra; 
Mansion  House,  Dawson  street;  No.  40  Herbert  Park;  Larkfield, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  261 


Kimmage  Road;  Woodtown  Park,  Ballyboden;  Saint  Enda's  Col- 
lege, Hermitage,  Rathfarnham;  and  in  addition  premises  in  list  5  D, 
see  Maps  3  and  4. 

This  was  the  tense  and  critical  situation  that  prevailed  in 
Ireland  when  Sir  Roger  Casement  arrived. 


CHAPTER  XLI 


The  Fatal  Order 

THE  exasperating  discovery  that  rifles  and  ammunition 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  and  that 
these  were  men  who  would  not  brook  insult  even 
from  a  trolley-car  driver,  roused  the  Tory  papers  both  in 
England  and  in  the  north  of  Ireland  to  a  fury  of  indignation. 
These  were  things  which  must  not  be  tolerated  by  the  Govern- 
ment, said  those  papers,  which,  a  few  short  months  before, 
had  been  telling  the  same  Government  that  they  would 
transfer  their  loyalty  to  the  German  Kaiser  if  the  Government 
dared  to  put  into  operation  the  Home  Rule  Bill. 

Ireland's  supposed  leaders  in  the  Parliamentary  Party  had 
joined  hands  with  the  British,  and  had  quietly  acquiesced  in 
every  insult  that  had  been  heaped  on  Irish  men  and  Irish 
women  by  the  British  Government  and  British  soldiers  in 
Dublin.  It  mattered  not  to  them  that  Irish  men  should  be 
imprisoned  and  deported,  and  that  Irish  girls  should  be 
violated  in  the  streets  of  their  own  cities.  But  it  did  matter 
to  them  that  Irishmen  should  dare  to  take  arms  into  their 
hands  for  the  purpose  of  defending  the  honor  of  their  women 
and  themselves.  Such  were  the  conditions  in  Ireland  at 
the  end  of  the  second  week  of  April,  1916,  that  only  a  nation 
of  spiritless  slaves  would  have  remained  silent  and  inactive. 
When,  in  addition  to  these  things,  it  was  known  to  the  leaders 
of  the  Volunteers  that  the  Government  was  planning,  with 
the  concurrence  of  the  Parliamentary  Party,  to  disarm  them 
and  then  to  conscript  them,  the  wonder  is  not  that  they 
resolved  to  sell  their  lives  in  one  desperate  protest,  but  that 
they  were  able  to  contain  themselves  and  their  followers  so  long. 

Certain  men  had  been  dispatched  by  the  Volunteer  leaders 
to  meet  the  cargo  of  German  arms  that  had  been  sent  on  the 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  263 


Aud.  This  cargo  was  not,  however,  expected  before  Easter 
Sunday,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  they  were  not  present 
when  that  vessel  arrived  off  the  coast.  The  news  that  she 
had  been  discovered  by  the  British  cruiser  did  not  reach 
them  for  some  time  later.  Instead  they  met  Roger  Casement, 
who  had  succeeded  in  landing  and  making  his  way  inland. 

Their  meeting  with  Casement  was  one  of  those  chances  of 
fortune  that  influence  the  destinies  of  nations.  The  meeting 
took  place  in  a  small  cottage  not  three  miles  from  the  place 
of  landing.  Casement  knew  the  men,  for  he  had  come  into 
contact  with  them  when  he  was  working  with  the  Volunteers 
prior  to  his  visit  to  the  United  States.  His  first  request, 
and  in  fact  his  only  one,  was  that  they  would  take  a  message 
for  him  to  Eoin  MacNeill  in  Dublin.  It  would  appear  that 
he  did  not  trust  to  the  chance  that  he  himself  would  be  able 
to  get  that  far  without  arrest.  He  did  not  say  to  these  men 
what  the  exact  terms  of  his  message  was,  but  wrote  it  down 
and  sealed  it,  after  addressing  it  to  the  Volunteer  leader. 
Owing  to  the  representations  that  Casement  made  regarding 
the  urgency  of  the  communication,  no  time  was  lost  in  con- 
veying it  to  Dublin  and  by  Friday  afternoon,  April  21, 
Casement's  message  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  MacNeill. 
It  had  been  carried  at  express  speed  by  automobile  from 
Kerry  to  the  Irish  capital. 

It  is  probable  that  the  exact  wording  of  this  historic  docu- 
ment will  never  be  known,  but  the  tenor  of  the  message  that 
caused  disaster  to  Ireland  is  known  beyond  doubt.  Acting  in 
all  sincerity,  Casement  told  Eoin  MacNeill  that  there  was  no 
hope  of  any  help  from  the  Germans,  that  the  latter  had  all 
the  work  on  hand  they  could  ever  hope  to  accomplish,  and 
that  it  was  useless  to  expect  they  would  be  able  to  assist 
Ireland.  He  told  MacNeill  that  he  had  traveled  from  Ger- 
many, and  had  risked  his  life  to  prevent  useless  bloodshed  in 
Ireland,  and  begged  of  him,  for  the  sake  of  Ireland  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  Volunteers,  to  prevent  any  attempt  at  a 
rising. 

In  making  these  statements  Casement  was  acting  only  on 


264   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  information  which  he  had  at  that  time,  for  he  was  not 
familiar  with  the  actual  condition  of  affairs  in  Ireland.  Case- 
ment knew  nothing  at  all  of  the  plot  that  had  been  hatched 
to  disarm  the  Volunteers  —  and  to  wipe  them  out  if  they  re- 
sisted —  and  then  to  enforce  conscription.  His  absence  from 
Ireland  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  accounted  for  his 
ignorance  of  these  facts.  In  actiug  as  he  did,  he  was  cer- 
tainly doing  what  he  believed  to  be  the  best  for  Ireland. 

This  communication  came  like  a  bombshell  into  the  camp 
of  the  Irish  Volunteers.  Were  it  not  that  the  man  who  had 
brought  it  was  completely  in  the  trust  of  the  Volunteers  and 
was  able  to  vouch  for  the  fact  that  Casement  had  himself 
written  the  message,  it  is  probable  that  it  would  have  been 
rejected  as  a  ruse  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  The  fact  that 
Casement  was  not  expected  in  Ireland  made  the  matter  all 
the  more  mysterious.  It  was  not  unreasonable  to  argue  that 
a  man  would  not  have  taken  such  risks  with  his  life,  unless 
he  knew  what  he  was  doing  and  that  his  statements  were 
founded  on  absolute  facts. 

It  was  not  the  statement  that  the  Germans  could  not  for 
the  present  lend  much  active  assistance  to  the  Volunteers 
that  caused  the  most  consternation  to  the  leaders.  They  had 
laid  their  plans  in  a  manner  that  rendered  them  more  or  less 
independent  of  outside  help  for  some  time  after  they  had 
declared  the  Republic.  During  this  time  they  counted  on 
being  able  to  create  a  diversion  that  would  have  a  big  effect 
in  the  world  war,  and,  once  in  possession  of  the  Irish  posts, 
they  could  offer  a  safe  haven  to  German  submarines.  What 
did  matter,  however,  was  the  statement  that  the  Germans 
were  sending  only  2000  old  rifles.  This  must  have  been 
considered  by  MacXeill  a  breach  of  trust,  and  one  that  would 
seriously  interfere  with  the  rising  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
country.  The  German  arms  were  counted  on  to  arm  the 
men  of  the  south,  and  their  loss  would  be  a  serious  matter. 

By  this  time  the  arrangements  of  the  Volunteers  was 
complete.  In  their  official  organ,  The  Irish  Volunteer,  of  that 
week,  the  following  notice  was  published: 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  965 


HEADQUARTERS  BULLETIN" 

Arrangements  are  now  nearing  completion  in  all  the 
tant  brigade  areas  for  the  holding  of  a  very 

plate  a  one  or  two  days'  bivouac.  As  for  Easter,  the  Dublin  pro- 
gramme may  well  stand  as  a  model  for  other  areas. 


Readers  of  the  foregoing  chapters  will  not  require  to  be 
told  the  meaning  of  this  order.  It  meant  that  the  time  had 
come  when  Ireland  was  again  to  try  conclusions  with  her  old 
enemy;  that  the  time  had  passed  for  negotiations  and  com- 
promise, and  that  the  Irish  people  had  been  driven  to  the 
last  resort  by  the  continued  treachery  of  their  own  leaders  and 
the  determined  efforts  of  the  military  plotters  to  force  the 
hands  of  the  leaders.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Volunteers 
had  learned  that  these  same  plotters  had  at  last  succeeded  in 
their  efforts,  and  that  arrangements  had  already  been  made 
to  disarm  the  Volunteers  and  place  Ireland  under  the  ban  of 
conscription. 

The  position  in  which  Eoin  MacXeiH  found  himself  when 
he  had  placed  in  his  hands  the  disconcerting  iWAsagr.  from 
Roger  Casement  may,  therefore,  well  be  realized.  He  was 
the  man  who  had,  at  other  times,  curbed  the  seemingly 
impetuous  spirits  among  the  leaders,  who  were  anxious  to 
declare  a  rising  months  before.  He  was  the  man  who  had 
been  the  leader  of  the  Volunteers  from  the  begmning.  and 
who  had  steered  the  organization  through  very  stormy  seas 
until  it  had  come  to  be  the  one  factor  that  still  held  out  in 
Ireland  for  the  rights  of  Ireland  a  Nation.  No  one  could 
realize  better  than  he  the  vast  responsibility  that  rested  on 
him  at  that  moment.  He  knew  that  the  plans  had  been 
made  for  the  rising  on  Easter  Sunday;  he  knew  also  that 
everything  was  ready,  that  the  preliminaries  had  been  ar- 
ranged, and  that  the  Volunteers  were  to  declare  an  Irish 
Republic  within  forty-eight  hours.  Yet  the  caution  that 
characterized  the  man,  and  the  faith  that  he  placed  in  the 
reliability  of  Casement,  whom  he  had  known  for  many  yens 


266   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  whom  he  had  learned  to  love  and  to  trust,  could  not  be 
set  aside  in  a  moment.  After  all,  it  appeared  to  him  that  it 
would  be  better  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  message  and 
to  defer  action  for  at  least  another  week,  until  they  had  had 
time  thoroughly  to  discuss  the  situation. 

There  was  no  time  for  mature  consideration  and  reflection. 
If  he  were  to  act,  he  must  act  at  once.  In  order  to  be 
effective,  an  order  calling  off  the  Easter  "maneuvres"  would 
have  to  be  inserted  in  the  newspapers  of  the  following  day. 
It  would  not  be  possible  to  get  into  touch  with  all  of  the 
branches  in  any  other  manner.  The  Dublin  evening  papers 
usually  go  to  press  earlier  with  their  last  editions  on  Saturdays 
than  on  other  week-days,  and  there  was  little  time  to  lose  if 
he  was  to  get  his  notice  into  the  papers  in  time  for  their 
final  editions. 

While  he  was  thus  torn  between  these  points  of  the  problem, 
he  received  a  private  message  in  code  informing  him  that  the 
German  vessel  had  been  sunk  and  that  Casement  was  a 
prisoner.  This  decided  him.  There  was,  he  reasoned,  nothing 
else  to  do  but  to  call  off  the  manoeuvres  for  Easter  Sunday, 
get  the  committee  together  in  special  session,  and  talk  over 
the  matter.  It  is  the  one  unfortunate  fact  that  Professor 
MacNeill  did  not  realize  that  the  time  had  passed  for  discus- 
sion, that  the  Government  had  its  mind  made  up,  and  that 
there  was  nothing  left  for  the  Volunteers  to  do  but  to  fight 
or  submit  to  being  disarmed. 

A  hurried  call  was  sent  out  to  the  various  members  of  the 
Volunteer  Committee,  and,  late  that  evening,  a  conference 
was  held  in  the  house  of  Eoin  MacNeill.  MacNeill  put  the 
matter  before  them,  and  urged  that  the  orders  be  counter- 
manded. To  this  there  were  many  who  did  not  agree,  who 
pointed  out  that  the  matter  had  gone  too  far,  that  the 
Volunteers  had  either  to  fight  or  be  disarmed,  and  that  a 
day's  delay  might  be  fatal.  At  the  same  time  a  conference 
was  proceeding  in  Liberty  Hall,  where  those  who  had  drawn 
up  the  Proclamation  of  the  Republic  and  had  determined  that 
they  would  fight  even  with  their  bare  hands,  were  in  session. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  267 


Thomas  MacDonagh  made  several  trips  between  the  two 
conferences,  and,  on  the  occasion  of  his  last  visit  to  the  home 
of  Eoin  MacNeill,  he  stated  that  the  other  men  were  de- 
termined to  go  ahead  with  the  plans  already  made  and  that 
no  orders  to  the  contrary  were  to  be  issued.  Nevertheless 
the  conference  at  MacNeill's  home  continued  until  the  small 
hours  of  Saturday  morning,  when  it  broke  up  without  any 
definite  plan  being  decided  on. 

The  last  edition  of  the  Dublin  Evening  Herald  of  that 
Saturday  contained  a  notice,  signed  "MacNeill,  Chief  of 
Staff,"  countermanding  the  orders  for  the  maneuvers.  At 
the  same  time,  in  order  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure, 
telegraphic  messages  were  sent  broadcast  to  every  parish 
priest  in  the  country,  asking  him  to  make  a  similar  announce- 
ment from  the  pulpit  at  the  services  the  following  day.  This 
was  the  fatal  act  that  broke  the  back  of  the  Rebellion. 

Let  us  now,  for  a  moment,  turn  back  to  the  time  when 
Casement  landed  on  the  coast  of  Kerry.  The  man  who  had 
noticed  the  overturned  boat  in  which  Casement  had  landed, 
and  whose  name  was  John  McCarthy,  lost  no  time  in  com- 
municating the  fact  of  his  discovery  to  the  police.  The 
authorities  had  received  a  warning  to  keep  a  vigilant  watch 
along  the  coast  following  the  information  they  had  received 
from  America  regarding  the  German  steamer.  The  police, 
therefore,  lost  no  time  in  tracing  Casement,  and,  a  short 
while  after  he  had  managed  to  dispatch  his  message  to 
MacNeill,  Casement  was  found  and  promptly  placed  under 
arrest.  He  made  no  resistance,  and  the  moment  that  he 
found  himself  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  English  he  knew 
that  his  life  would  pay  the  forfeit. 

On  the  evening  of  April  22  it  was  known  to  the  authorities 
that  the  man  who  had  been  arrested  was  none  other  than  Sir 
Roger  Casement,  the  man  whom  the  English  had  been  striving 
to  apprehend  and  for  whose  murder  they  had  been  ready  to 
sacrifice  the  honor  of  the  British  Empire.  While  this  caused 
no  little  satisfaction  to  the  Dublin  Castle  authorities,  it 
nevertheless  gave  them  reason  to  believe  that  matters  of 


268   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


serious  moment  were  afoot.  The  Castle  became  panic- 
stricken.  Various  military  officers  of  the  highest  standing 
demanded  that  there  was  only  one  thing  to  be  done.,  and  that 
was  to  secure  the  immediate  arrest  of  all  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders 
throughout  the  country  without  further  loss  of  time.  They 
urged  that  the  landing  of  Roger  Casement  and  consignment 
of  the  cargo  of  arms  from  Germany  were  proof  positive  that 
rebellion  was  being  planned,  and  they  pointed  out  that  there 
was  not  a  moment  to  lose.  They  then  attached  the  greatest 
and  most  sinister  significance  to  the  order  for  the  "Easter 
maneuvers"  of  the  Volunteers,  and  sagaciously  observed,  one 
to  another,  that  this  could  mean  nothing  more  than  a  signal 
for  a  rising. 

That  evening  a  conference  was  called  in  Dublin  Castle  at 
which  all  the  members  of  the  British  Government  in  Ireland, 
with  the  exception  of  Chief  Secretary  Birrell,  were  present. 
While  the  conference  was  sitting,  information  was  received  to 
the  effect  that  MacNeill  had  ordered  off  the  maneuvers  for 
Sunday,  and  thus  some  of  the  more  dangerous  symptoms  of 
the  situation  seemed  to  have  been  relieved.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  this  information  was  greeted  with  a  sigh  of 
thankfulness  by  Ireland's  masters,  as  they  sat  in  their  room 
between  the  towers  of  the  Castle  that  Saturday  evening. 

Meanwhile  the  police  all  over  the  country,  acting  on  rush 
orders  from  the  Government,  were  keeping  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers under  strict  surveillance.  There  was  not  a  section  or  a 
battalion  of  that  organization  that  was  not  rigidly  scrutinized. 
The  King's  ministers  sat  up  till  midnight  receiving  reports 
from  the  police  throughout  the  land,  and  they  did  not  dare  to 
retire  to  their  troubled  slumbers  until  they  had  assured 
themselves  that  there  had  been  no  movement  of  the  "rebel 
troops,"  by  which  name  the  Irish  Volunteers  were  by  this 
time  designated. 

Thus  passed  that  historic  Saturday,  April  22,  1916.  The 
German  arms  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea;  Casement  was  a 
prisoner;  the  rising  had  been  declared  off;  and  the  emissaries 
of  the  British  Government  were  sitting  up  in  their  Castle  of 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  269 


Dublin,  trembling  at  the  shadows  on  the  wall  cast  by  the 
flickering  lights  from  Cork  Hill,  and  dreading  every  moment 
to  hear  the  first  crash  of  the  storm  which  they  had  themselves 
aroused,  and  which  they  now  feared  was  beyond  their  strength 
to  control. 


CHAPTER  XLII 
The  O'Rahilly's  Ride 

IT  soon  became  obvious  that  Eoin  MacNeill  was  de- 
termined that  there  should  be  no  rebellion  in  Ireland  at 
Easter.  In  addition  to  the  notice  which  appeared  in 
the  Dublin  Evening  Herald  on  Saturday  evening,  and  the 
messages  to  the  priests  throughout  the  country,  he  decided 
on  other  measures.  He  called  The  O'Rahilly  to  his  house 
and,  having  explained  the  situation,  asked  him  to  assist  and 
find  means  to  make  sure  of  notifying  the  south  that  the 
rising  had  been  postponed. 

The  O'Rahilly  was  evidently  impressed  by  the  reasons 
which  MacNeill  offered  why  the  rising  should  not  take  place 
as  scheduled.  He  was  essentially  a  man  of  energy  and 
action,  and  yet  he  was  sufficiently  a  man  of  military  instincts 
to  accept  without  question  the  orders  of  his  chief.  MacNeill, 
it  would  appear,  did  not  call  him  to  consult  as  to  the  ad- 
visability of  postponing  the  Rebellion;  that  had  already 
been  decided  on,  in  MacNeill's  opinion,  and  action  had  been 
taken.  What  The  O'Rahilly  was  asked  to  do  was  to  assist 
in  the  carrying  out  of  the  orders  of  his  chief,  and  he  was 
ready  to  do  whatever  lay  in  his  power. 

MacNeill  explained,  as  The  O'Rahilly  well  knew,  that  the 
south  was  one  of  the  chief  centers  on  which  they  had  relied. 
The  cargo  of  arms  on  the  Aud  was  intended  for  the  arming 
of  the  men  of  Cork,  Limerick,  and  all  along  the  coast  line  of 
Wexford  and  Wicklow  to  the  Dublin  Mountains.  With  this 
cargo  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  there  remained  less  chance  of 
the  men  of  this  section  of  the  country  being  able  to  put  up 
an  effective  fight,  yet  MacNeill  also  must  have  known  that 
these  men,  even  with  the  arms  at  their  disposal,  would  not 
hesitate  to  obey  the  orders  they  had  received  and  would 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


271 


have  declared  the  Rebellion  at  the  time  stated  if  nothing  was 
done  to  prevent  them.  MacNeill  was  also  not  certain  that 
they  would  get  the  messages  in  time,  and  that  they  might 
not  doubt  their  authenticity  even  if  they  did  receive  them. 

It  was,  therefore,  as  he  explained  to  The  O'Rahilly,  his 
desire  that  a  personal  message  should  be  sent  to  the  com- 
manders in  these  districts,  explaining  why  the  rising  had 
been  postponed.  As  soon  as  he  heard  this,  The  O'Rahilly, 
with  a  vision  of  unarmed  men  being  slaughtered  by  the 
machine  guns  of  the  English,  volunteered  to  take  the  message 
personally  in  his  automobile,  and,  MacNeill  agreeing,  The 
O'Rahilly  immediately  left  the  house,  proceeded  home, 
explained  to  his  wife  where  he  was  going  and  why,  and  a 
little  while  later  was  on  his  way. 

There  is  something  peculiarly  appealing  in  this  ride  of  The 
O'Rahilly.  In  other  countries  there  have  been  rides  that 
have  become  matters  of  history,  and  have  retained  their 
place  in  the  records  of  the  people  in  popular  song  and  story. 
Paul  Revere \s  Ride  will  for  all  time  be  remembered  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  United  States,  and,  in  like  manner,  future  genera- 
tions may  remember  The  O'Rahilly 's  Ride,  undertaken  at  the 
command  of  his  chief  for  the  purpose,  as  he  believed,  of 
preventing  the  wholesale  killing  of  his  brave  and  gallant 
countrymen  of  the  south. 

Starting  late  on  Saturday  night,  The  O'Rahilly  drove  his 
car  south  from  Dublin.  Taking  the  road  through  Bray,  he 
was  soon  flying  at  top  speed  through  the  hills  and  glens  of 
Wicklow,  the  Garden  County  of  Ireland,  and  the  scene  of 
some  of  the  most  famous  incidents  in  the  history  of  the  land. 
He  drove  east  to  the  coast,  passed  the  word  at  Wicklow,  and 
then  turned  southeast  to  Rathdrum.  From  here  it  was  a 
short  run  to  Arklow.  Then  on  he  sped  again  to  Gorey  and 
Enniscorthy,  where  his  news  was  received  with  incredulous 
amazement.  Later  events  showed  how  the  men  of  that  fine 
old  town  responded  to  the  call  a  few  hours  later. 

Towards  midnight  The  O'Rahilly  was  rushing  towards 
Wexford,  along  roads  and  past  villages  where,  a  century 


272   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


before,  the  British  had  been  forced  to  flee  in  wild  disorder 
from  Irish  pikes.  It  was  far  later  still  when  he  brought  the 
word  to  Waterford.  Turning  then  inland,  he  sped  through 
the  land  of  the  Decies  and  the  Ormonds.  Past  many  a  famed 
battlefield  the  word  was  carried  that  there  was  to  be  no 
Rebellion,  that  the  plans  had  failed  for  the  time  being,  and 
that  the  arms  they  had  hoped  for  could  no  longer  be  secured. 
We  can  imagine  with  what  mingled  feelings  The  O'Rahilly 
was  received.  In  one  place  after  another  the  men  were  up, 
and  the  arrival  of  the  messenger  filled  them  with  hope  that 
he  had  come  with  the  final  instructions  for  the  fighting. 
The  men  of  the  south  had  borne  the  insult  and  the  contu- 
mely of  the  foreigner  for  many  months  —  not  to  mention  past 
years  —  in  comparative  silence,  because  they  had  been  told 
that  the  time  was  coming,  that  the  day  would  soon  dawn, 
when  they  would  be  able  to  strike  a  blow  for  freedom  and 
to  avenge  their  wrongs.  And  now  it  was  all  over,  at  least 
for  the  present;  the  arms  they  wanted  had  not  arrived  and 
would  not  arrive,  and  they  were  still  to  go  on  in  the  same  old 
way. 

At  Limerick  The  O'Rahilly  heard  that  the  men  of  Cork 
had  already  received  the  tidings.  In  this  section  of  the 
country  the  news  of  the  sinking  of  the  Aud  had  been  spread 
broadcast,  and  consternation  was  in  the  heart  of  every  man 
who  had  hoped  on  the  morrow  to  be  able  to  take  his  place  in 
the  Irish  ranks.  The  sun  was  high  in  the  heavens  when  The 
O'Rahilly  came  to  the  end  of  his  journey  and  rested  at 
Limerick.  He  had  performed  his  work  well;  and  the  south 
knew  that  there  were  to  be  no  "maneuvres."  After  a 
conference  with  the  men  of  Limerick,  he  decided  to  remain 
with  them  for  a  short  while  and  then  return  to  Dublin. 

Meanwhile,  throughout  the  rest  of  the  country  the  word 
had  been  received  that  the  Rebellion  had  been  postponed. 
In  the  far  north,  away  in  the  west,  and  throughout  the 
midlands  the  priests  had  read  to  their  congregations  the  mes- 
sage signed  "MacNeill,  Chief  of  Staff."  All  of  the  churches 
were  crowded.    Not  alone  was  it  Easter  Sunday,  a  festi- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  273 


val  when  there  is  always  a  big  attendance  at  the  early 
Masses,  but  the  events  that  had  been  expected  had  also 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  filling  of  the  churches. 
During  the  previous  Friday  and  Saturday  there  had  been, 
throughout  the  country,  an  unusually  large  number  of  men 
at  confession.  In  Dublin  the  young  men  had  walked  along 
the  streets  of  the  city  by  the  side  of  the  priests,  apparently 
merely  engaged  in  conversation  but  in  reality  making  their 
confessions.  On  Easter  Sunday  the  same  crowds  had  thronged 
the  churches  for  the  reception  of  Holy  Communion. 

The  demobilizing  order  —  for  that  is  what  it  amounted  to 
—  came  as  a  shock  to  every  man  in  the  ranks  of  the  Volun- 
teers. They  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what  had  happened  to 
cause  so  sudden  a  change  in  the  plans.  Yet  the  order  was 
imperative:  there  was  nothing  left  to  do  but  obey  it,  go  home 
and  await  further  developments.  As  a  result,  thousands  of 
men  who  had  assembled  at  the  various  points  for  the  "ma- 
neuvres"  disbanded  and  returned  to  their  homes  in  scattered 
bands  of  four  or  five.  By  Sunday  evening  it  would  have 
been  impossible,  without  two  or  three  days'  work,  to  have 
collected  the  men  together  again  as  they  had  been  on  that 
Easter  Sunday  morning,  April  23,  1916. 

It  is  a  fact  not  generally  known  that  there  were  two  of 
these  countermanding  orders.  In  the  first  instance,  Eoin 
MacNeill,  as  has  been  shown,  spared  no  effort  to  spread  the 
message  over  the  country.  At  this  time  conferences  were 
being  held  in  Liberty  Hall  by  the  men  who  were  in  favor  of  a 
rebellion,  and  when  the  word  was  brought  to  them  that 
MacNeill  had  called  off  the  Rebellion,  it  was  feared  that  there 
would  be  some  who  would  not  obey  the  command.  In  order 
that  there  should  be  no  fiasco,  with  one  or  two  wildly  sepa- 
rated sections  striking  alone,  Pearse  decided  that  the  best 
thing  to  do  was  to  send  out  a  confirming  order,  with  the 
proviso  that  the  maneuvres  were  called  off  only  temporarily. 
This  was  done,  and  thus  the  demobilizing  of  the  men  of  the 
country  districts  was  rendered  complete. 

As  a  result  of  these  events  the  police  and  paid  agents  of  the 


274   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Government  sent  word  to  Dublin  Castle  that  there  had  been 
no  movements  of  the  Volunteers  that  day,  and  that  the 
intended  "maneuvers''  had  been  abandoned.  It  requires  no 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  realize  the  effect  the  receipt  of 
these  reports  had  on  the  authorities.  For  hours  they  had 
been  seated  on  a  volcano,  with  the  interesting  expectation 
that  it  was  going  to  erupt  at  any  moment.  After  a  night  of 
fitful  slumber,  with  armed  guards  at  every  entrance  into  the 
Castle,  they  arose  on  that  Sunday  morning  with  the  intention 
of  taking  immediate  steps  to  make  a  recurrence  of  the  recent 
crisis  impossible  for  all  future  time.  The  first  conference 
was  held  shortly  after  nine  o'clock.  At  that  time  a  report 
had  been  received  to  the  effect  that  a  consignment  of  melinite 
had  been  taken  into  Liberty  Hall,  the  headquarters  of  the 
Citizen  Army.  This  was  not  calculated  to  relieve  materially 
the  situation,  but  at  the  same  time,  as  the  telegraphic  mes- 
sages began  to  arrive  from  the  country  to  the  effect  that  the 
mobilization  had  been  postponed,  the  officials  began  to 
breathe  a  little  easier  and  to  comfort  themselves  with  the 
thought  that  they  had  passed  the  worst.  They  thereupon 
set  to  work  to  plan  the  best  way  of  suppressing  the  Volunteers 
and  arresting  the  leaders. 

Among  those  who  took  part  in  these  conferences  were  Sir 
Matthew  Nathan,  the  energetic  Undersecretary,  Lord  Wim- 
borne,  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  polo  fame,  General  Friend, 
and  several  of  the  military  officers.  These  latter,  who  were 
supported  by  General  Friend  and  the  Undersecretary, 
repeated  what  they  had  been  saying  for  weeks  before,  that  the 
only  way  out  of  the  situation  was  by  ordering  the  arrests  of 
all  the  Volunteer  leaders  and  all  the  men  connected  with  the 
organization,  seizing  the  arms,  and  breaking  up  the  entire 
body. 

Lord  Wimborne  pointed  out  that  this  would  certainly  mean 
trouble  of  the  worst  kind;  that,  if  this  were  done,  there  would 
be  bloodshed,  and  the  whole  world  would  hear  about  it.  He 
had  been  in  America  and  knew  something  of  the  sentiment 
here,  and  he  did  not  fail  to  point  out  that  feeling  across  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


275 


Atlantic  would  be  greatly  wrought  up  by  such  measures. 
He  wanted  to  know  if  there  was  no  means  of  dealing  with  the 
situation  that  would  prevent  bloodshed. 

But  these  arguments  were  only  half-hearted  at  the  best. 
The  military  officers  were  soon  in  complete  command  of  the 
situation.  On  a  number  of  other  occasions  they  had  been 
balked  in  their  plans,  and  they  were  evidently  determined 
that  they  were  not  going  to  be  put  off  any  longer.  They 
pointed  out  that  the  clearest  possible  proof  of  the  "hostile 
association"  of  the  Volunteers  had  been  afforded  by  the 
attempt  to  land  arms  from  Germany.  They  said  that  it 
had  been  proved  that  these  men  had  deliberately  conspired 
with  the  enemy  to  assist  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Empire. 
What  they  did  not  say,  however,  was  that  it  was  owing  to 
their  own  actions  and  to  the  actions  of  the  Empire  they 
represented  that  the  men  of  Ireland  had  been  driven  to 
desperation.  This  was  a  point  that  no  one  in  Dublin  Castle 
cared  to  consider. 

With  regard  to  the  shedding  of  blood,  that  did  not  matter 
to  the  military,  so  long  as  they  could  shed  the  blood  of  the 
Irish  in  a  manner  that  would  involve  the  minimum  of  risk  to 
themselves.  The  question  of  American  opinion  was  dismissed 
lightly,  General  Friend  stating  that  he  did  not  care  a  fig  for 
America  and  that,  if  the  Irish  over  there  tried  to  make  any 
trouble,  they  would  very  soon  be  settled.  He  even  went  so 
far  as  to  state  that  the  American  Government  would,  if 
necessary,  cause  the  arrest  and  deportation  of  all  the  Irish 
sympathizers  in  the  United  States. 

There  was,  then,  only  one  question  that  remained  to  be 
decided,  and  that  was  the  best  means  of  making  the  arrests 
and  seizing  the  arms.  It  was  agreed  that  Liberty  Hall  pre- 
sented the  most  formidable  obstacle  to  the  carrying  out  of 
these  plans,  as,  since  the  previous  attempted  raid  on  that 
place,  armed  men  had  been  on  duty  day  and  night.  It  was 
known  that  these  men  would  sell  their  lives  dearly.  The 
military  did  not  relish  making  an  attack  on  any  armed  men, 
at  least  not  in  a  manner  that  would  involve  too  much  risk  to 


276   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


themselves.  There  were  also  a  number  of  other  places  through- 
out the  city  where  resistance  might  be  expected. 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  was,  therefore,  arranged  that  a 
large  number  of  soldiers  should  be  drafted  into  the  city  the 
following  morning,  and  that  the  arrests  should  be  carried  out 
the  first  moment  sufficient  men  had  been  secured.  In  order 
that  there  should  be  no  mistake,  it  was  decided  that  a  large 
number  of  machine  guns  should  be  taken  as  quietly  as  possible 
to  the  Custom  House  and  there  trained  on  Liberty  Hall. 
At  the  first  sign  of  resistance  from  that  quarter  these  guns 
would  be  turned  on  the  building,  and  it  would  not  take  long, 
so  argued  these  military  experts,  to  reduce  the  place  to  an 
untenable  wreck.  The  same  tactics  would  be  followed  with 
regard  to  all  the  other  places  where  an  attempt  at  resistance 
was  expected.  It  was  thus  believed  that  the  Volunteers 
would  either  be  compelled  to  give  up  their  arms  or  else  would 
be  shot  where  they  stood,  and  in  either  case  the  problem 
would  be  solved  with  little  or  no  risk  to  the  soldiery. 

It  was  also  considered  that  there  was  a  possibility  of  some 
of  the  Volunteers  making  a  show  of  resistance  in  the  streets. 
In  order  to  avoid  this,  it  was  decided  that  the  soldiers  at  the 
Curragh  should  be  drafted  into  Dublin  and  crowd  the  streets, 
fully  armed,  so  as  to  overawe  any  Volunteers  who  might  feel 
in  a  belligerent  mood.  In  fact,  during  the  conferences  at 
Dublin  Castle,  the  military  made  excellent  plans  for  the 
pogrom  they  had  been  promising  themselves  for  months  past; 
and,  when  these  plans  had  been  completed,  they  prided 
themselves  that  the  only  Volunteers  who  would  be  left  in  the 
city  after  they  had  carried  them  out  would  be  either  dead  or 
in  jail. 

There  was  but  one  other  matter  necessary  to  complete  their 
arrangements,  and  this  was  to  secure  the  consent  of  Chief 
Secretary  Birrell  to  their  plans.  Up  to  that  time  Birrell, 
having  some  sense  of  justice,  had  refused  to  take  action  against 
the  Irish  Volunteers  and  leave  the  "National"  and  the  Ulster 
Volunteers  untouched  and  with  arms  in  their  hands.  On 
this  occasion,  however,  the  military  were  of  the  opinion  that 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  277 


they  would  be  able  to  bring  Mr.  Birrell  to  his  senses  and 
force  his  hand.  So  a  very  urgent  message  was  sent  to  London 
telling  Mr.  Birrell  what  had  been  proposed,  and  on  the 
following  morning,  Monday,  April  24,  a  reply  was  received 
from  the  Chief  Secretary  giving  his  consent  to  the  arrests  and 
disarmament.  It  happened,  however,  that  while  the  British 
had  been  making  their  plans  in  the  Castle,  another  conference 
was  also  being  held,  and  with  this  we  shall  now  proceed  to 
deal. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 


The  Nine  Hours'  Conference 

IT  was  three  o'clock  on  Easter  Sunday  morning,  and 
Dublin  lay  in  that  unquiet  slumber  peculiar  to  great 
cities.  The  flickering  lights  cast  strange  and  fantastic 
shadows  that  danced  on  the  pavements  as  one  or  two  belated 
pedestrians  passed  on  their  way  north  or  south  in  the  city. 
In  the  street  near  Amiens  Street  Station  four  or  five  outside 
cars  awaited  the  possibility  of  a  fare,  the  jarveys  standing 
around  talking  in  conversational  tones  that  could  be  distin- 
guished half  a  block  away.  On  the  opposite  side  stood  three 
policemen,  close  together  and  exchanging  confidences  in 
whispers.  Away  in  the  distance  a  clock  tolled  the  hour. 
Far  to  the  east,  towards  Fairview,  there  came  the  answering 
shriek  of  an  engine's  steam  whistle. 

"The  train's  late  to-night,"  remarked  one  of  the  jarveys  to 
a  comrade. 

"It's  an  early  excursion,"  was  the  reply  of  the  other. 
"The  Mail  got  in  fifteen  minutes  ago." 

In  this,  however,  he  was  mistaken.  It  happened  that  the 
mail  train  from  the  north  was  a  few  minutes  late  that 
morning.  There  were  quite  a  number  of  passengers  on  board, 
too,  although  it  had  been  reported  that  many  who  had  booked 
tickets  by  the  Mail  had  failed  to  arrive  in  time.  On  this 
account  the  train  had  delayed  a  little,  and,  in  addition,  there 
had  been  fog  here  and  there  along  the  line,  and  this  had 
interfered  somewhat  with  the  schedule. 

Among  those  who  alighted  from  the  train  were  a  number 
of  young  girls,  whose  graceful  and  erect  carriage  and  easy, 
almost  martial  swinging  step  denoted  something  out  of  the 
ordinary.  On  leaving  the  station  they  took  a  sharp  turn  to 
the  left  and  marched,  by  the  nearest  route,  direct  to  Beresford 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  279 


Place.  At  the  door  of  Liberty  Hall  the  leader  of  the  party,  a 
slim  young  girl,  was  halted  by  one  of  the  two  armed  sentries 
who  stood  there  on  guard. 

"I  am  Nora  Connolly,  daughter  of  Jim  Connolly,''  the  girl 
explained,  and  the  sentry  brought  his  rifle  back  to  the  "pre- 
sent arms,"  and  allowed  the  girls  to  pass  into  the  hall. 

These  were  the  girls  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan,  attached  to 
the  Northern  Command  of  the  Irish  Volunteers  and  the 
Citizen  Army.  They  had  received  their  orders  to  have  their 
bandages  and  field  equipment  ready  for  use  on  Easter  Sunday. 
The  demobilizing  order  had  been  received  in  the  north  late 
on  Saturday  evening,  and  had  thrown  all  their  arrangements 
out  of  gear.  They  had,  therefore,  gone  to  Liberty  Hall  for 
the  purpose  of  finding  out  what  had  gone  wrong  with  the 
plans  for  the  rising. 

James  Connolly  was  not  asleep  when  the  girls  arrived. 
He  was  lying  down  for  a  short  rest.  Nora  asked  him  what 
was  the  meaning  of  the  order  that  had  been  received,  and 
demanded  to  know  if  there  was  to  be  no  rising  after  all. 

Looking  very  serious,  James  Connolly  sat  up  in  his  bed, 
and  was  silent  for  a  moment  while  he  scanned  the  face  of  his 
daughter.  Then  he  said,  speaking  slowly  and  deliberately, 
as  was  his  wont: 

"If  there  is  no  rising,  Nora,  pray  that  an  earthquake  will 
come  and  swallow  up  Ireland." 

James  Connolly  was  in  close  touch  with  everything  that 
was  being  done  by  the  authorities  in  Dublin  Castle.  He  knew 
in  advance  that  they  were  determined  to  strike  now  that  they 
thought  the  Rebellion  was  indefinitely  postponed.  He  knew 
that,  if  they  did  so,  it  would  be  the  end  of  all  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  a  generation,  for  the  people  of  Ireland  would 
be  left  without  leaders  at  the  mercy  of  a  British  military 
tribunal,  and  conscription  into  the  British  army  would  be  the 
next  step.  Further  than  this  he  also  knew  that  the  Volun- 
teers and  the  Citizen  Army  would  be  branded  as  cowards  by 
their  enemies  on  both  sides  of  the  channel,  and  that  it  would 
be  said  of  them  that  they  were  afraid  to  fight  with  the  British 


280  HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  afraid  to  fight  against  them;  that  they  had  been  given  to 
speaking  big  words  which  they  did  not  dare  to  translate  into 
deeds.  Connolly  had  also  heard  of  the  sinking  of  the  Aud  and 
the  capture  of  Roger  Casement,  and  he  rightly  judged  that 
the  Government  would  lose  no  time  in  getting  the  machinery 
of  coercion  into  motion.  It  was  on  account  of  these  things 
that  he  judged  the  time  had  come  when  Ireland  must  either 
fight  or  acknowledge  herself  forever  the  thrall  of  England. 

The  arrival  of  the  girls  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan  roused 
Connolly  to  action.  He  realized  that  there  was  no  time  to 
be  lost;  that  they  would  have  to  act  quickly,  if  they  were  not 
to  be  caught  in  a  trap.  He  therefore  dispatched  the  girls 
to  the  homes  of  the  other  leaders  of  the  movement  with  a 
message  calling  for  an  immediate  conference  at  Liberty  Hall. 
Those  who  were  summoned  to  this  council  of  war  were  Tom 
Clarke,  P.  H.  Pearse,  Joseph  Plunkett,  Sean  MacDermott, 
Thomas  MacDonagh,  and  Eamonn  Ceannt.  Some  were  in 
bed  when  the  message  came,  others  were  about  to  lie  down 
after  coming  home  from  a  meeting  of  their  companies.  All 
started  out  without  hesitation  on  receiving  the  message 
through  the  girls,  and,  without  waiting  to  eat  breakfast  or  do 
more  than  don  their  clothes,  they  started  for  Liberty  Hall. 

Each  of  these  men  knew  what  that  call  meant.  They 
were  well  aware,  when  they  left  their  homes  in  the  cool  still- 
ness and  dark  of  that  Easter  Sunday  morning,  that  there  was 
a  likelihood  they  would  never  return.  Yet  when  they  arrived 
at  Liberty  Hall  and  greeted  Comrade  Connolly,  they  were  all 
as  gay  and  as  lighthearted  as  though  they  had  been  asked  to 
a  banquet.  This  was  particularly  noticeable  in  the  case  of 
Tom  Clarke,  the  veteran  of  them  all,  who  seemed  to  be 
bubbling  over  with  good  humor.  As  the  business  in  hand 
was  calculated  to  take  up  some  considerable  time,  it  was 
decided  that  breakfast  should  be  taken  before  anything  else 
was  done.  The  girls  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan  went  to  work 
in  the  little  kitchen  of  the  Hall,  and  soon  provided  a  sub- 
stantial meal  for  all.  While  this  was  being  done,  Connolly 
gave  orders  for  extra  precautions  to  be  taken.    The  two 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  281 


armed  sentries  at  the  door  were  strengthened  by  two  more  in 
the  outer  corridor,  two  in  the  staircase,  two  on  the  corridor 
upstairs,  and  two  more  outside  the  door  of  the  room  where 
the  conference  was  to  be  held.  While  these  warlike  prepara- 
tions were  being  made,  the  men  who  had  come  together  to 
talk  over  the  situation  were  chatting  and  joking  with  one  an- 
other, and  saying  but  little  regarding  the  business  they  had  on 
hand.  They  partook  of  a  hearty  breakfast  and  talked  for  a 
few  minutes  afterwards  before  they  rose  to  begin  the  conference. 

The  clocks  of  the  city  were  booming  the  hour  of  five,  and 
the  first  faint  streaks  of  Easter  Sunday  morning  were  filtering 
through  the  clouds  that  overcast  the  sky,  when  the  seven 
men  seated  themselves  at  the  table  in  the  conference  room 
to  begin  a  discussion  that  will  figure  prominently  in  the 
annals  of  Ireland.  Gathered  together  in  that  small  room 
were  seven  of  the  bravest  men  in  the  country,  men  who  were 
not  afraid  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  a  principle.  They 
were  men  of  power  and  intelligence,  who  could  be  trusted  to 
arrive  at  no  erratic  or  rash  conclusion. 

When  the  conference  first  assembled,  it  was  presided  over 
by  Jim  Connolly.  He  went  into  some  little  detail  regarding 
the  reasons  which  had  prompted  him  to  send  for  his  comrades 
at  so  unusual  an  hour.  He  told  them  that  Dublin  Castle  was 
even  at  that  moment  preparing  to  strike,  and  that  all  they 
had  to  decide  at  that  time  was  whether  they  were  going  to 
hand  in  their  arms  and  surrender  all  their  hopes  and  go  to 
fight  for  England,  or  whether  they  were  going  to  make  a 
fight  for  it  themselves,  on  their  own  soil,  against  their  own 
enemy,  with  a  chance,  perhaps  a  small  one,  of  winning  out 
in  the  finish.  When  he  had  thus  stated  the  subject  of  their 
discussion,  he  moved  a  resolution  that  Tom  Clarke  take  the 
chair.  This  was  adopted  and  the  veteran  Nationalist,  the 
coolest  headed  man  in  the  city  of  Dublin,  took  over  the  chair- 
manship of  the  conference. 

The  men  had  not  been  in  conference  for  an  hour  before 
they  had  arrived  at  a  decision  on  the  main  question.  The 
whole  situation  was  well  known  to  all  of  them;  it  was  not 


282  HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


necessary  to  go  deeply  into  the  facts.  After  a  brief  discussion 
they  decided  that  they  had  only  one  course  open  to  them, 
and  that  was  to  fight.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  would  not 
have  been  possible  for  them  to  have  retained  their  own  self- 
respect  had  they  come  to  any  other  settlement  of  the  ques- 
tion. There  remained,  however,  a  great  deal  of  other  work 
before  the  conference  in  order  that  the  decision  to  which 
they  had  come  might  be  carried  out. 

The  question  of  the  issuance  of  a  Proclamation,  the  ap- 
pointing of  a  Provisional  Government,  and  a  score  and  one 
other  things  had  to  be  decided  on  before  any  action  could  be 
taken.  It  was  also  necessary  to  do  everything  possible  to 
try  to  combat  the  evil  effects  of  the  demobilizing  order,  and 
to  try  to  get  the  men  together  again.  One  hour  went  into 
another,  the  city  outside  became  alive  with  the  thousands  of 
people  thronging  to  the  churches,  the  long  shadows  of  the 
morning  shortened  towards  noon,  and  still  the  seven  men 
sat  behind  closed  doors  in  Liberty  Hall  planning  an  event 
that  was  to  startle  the  world  and  contribute  a  glorious  page 
to  humanity's  fight  for  freedom.  At  the  same  time  the 
officials  of  the  British  Empire  were  making  their  arrangements 
to  take  the  guns  from  the  Volunteers  and  the  Citizen  Army 
and  to  arrest  or  kill  their  leaders. 

At  noon  the  conference  had  been  in  session  for  seven  hours, 
and  most  of  the  details  had  been  settled.  It  had  then  been 
decided  to  take  every  possible  step  to  get  the  men  together 
again,  and  for  this  purpose  messages  were  to  be  sent  through- 
out the  country  to  the  various  centers.  The  various  points 
to  be  taken  in  the  first  rush  were  quickly  decided  on,  having 
been  planned  months  ahead.  It  was  also  decided  that 
Connolly  should  be  placed  in  command  of  the  Dublin  forces, 
and  that  the  seven  men  at  the  conference  should  resolve  them- 
selves into  a  Provisional  Government  to  conduct  the  affairs  of 
the  Irish  Republic  until  such  time  as  an  election  could  be  held 
by  the  people.    These  points  also  had  been  settled  weeks  before. 

When  it  came  to  a  question  as  to  who  should  be  appointed 
the  Provisional  President  of  the  new  Republic,  it  was  at  first 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  283 


the  unanimous  opinion  that  Clarke  should  take  the  position. 
Tom  Clarke  himself,  however,  declined  the  honor,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  convincing  his  colleagues  that  such  a  selection  would 
be  unwise.  He  said  that  he  had  been  too  prominently 
identified  with  the  so-called  "extreme"  agitation,  and  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  be  thrust  forward,  but  merely  to  do  his 
own  work  when  the  time  came.  It  was  he  who  suggested 
that  Pearse,  the  scholar  and  the  soldier,  was  the  man  to  name, 
and  who  said  that,  if  they  won  out,  there  was  no  one  better 
fitted  in  his  judgment  than  Padraic  H.  Pearse  to  lead  the 
Irish  Nation  in  the  first  glow  of  newly- won  freedom.  He, 
therefore,  proposed  that  Pearse  should  be  thus  honored,  and 
his  colleagues  bowed  to  his  judgment. 

The  Proclamation  had  been  printed  some  days  previously 
and  all  of  the  seven  men  may  be  said  to  have  had  an  equal 
share  in  its  composition.  But  Tom  Clarke  insisted  that  his 
should  be  the  first  name  appended  to  the  document,  and 
he  had  placed  his  signature  on  a  line  by  itself  with  the 
other  six  ranged  in  pairs  below.  The  following  is  an  exact 
copy  of  the  wording  of  the  document,  taken  from  the  original : 

laoblacfit  na  5  (Etoann 

THE  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT 

OF  THE 

IRISH  REPUBLIC 
TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  IRELAND 

Irishmen  and  Irishwomen:  In  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  dead 
generations  from  whom  she  receives  her  old  traditions  of  nationhood, 
Ireland,  through  us,  summons  her  children  to  her  flag  and  strikes 
for  her  freedom. 

Having  organized  and  trained  her  manhood  through  her  secret 
revolutionary  organization,  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  and 
through  her  open  military  organizations,  the  Irish  Volunteers  and 
the  Irish  Citizen  Army,  having  patiently  perfected  her  discipline, 
having  resolutely  waited  for  the  right  moment  to  reveal  itself,  she 
now  seizes  that  moment,  and,  supported  by  her  exiled  children  in 
America  and  her  gallant  allies  in  Europe,  but  relying  in  the  first 
on  her  own  strength,  she  strikes  in  full  confidence  of  victory. 


284   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


We  declare  the  right  of  the  people  of  Ireland  to  the  ownership  of 
Ireland,  and  to  the  unfettered  control  of  Irish  destinies,  to  be  sover- 
eign and  indefeasible.  The  long  usurpation  of  that  right  by  a  foreign 
people  and  government  has  not  extinguished  the  right,  nor  can  it 
ever  be  extinguished  except  by  the  destruction  of  the  Irish  people. 
In  every  generation  the  Irish  people  have  asserted  their  right  to 
national  freedom  and  sovereignty:  six  times  during  the  past  three 
hundred  years  they  have  asserted  it  in  arms.  Standing  on  that  fun- 
damental right  and  again  asserting  it  in  arms  in  the  face  of  the 
world,  we  hereby  proclaim  the  Irish  Republic  as  a  Sovereign  Inde- 
pendent State,  and  we  pledge  our  lives  and  the  lives  of  our  com- 
rades-in-arms to  the  cause  of  its  freedom,  of  its  welfare,  and  of  its 
exaltation  among  the  nations. 

The  Irish  Republic  is  entitled  to,  and  hereby  claims,  the  allegiance 
of  every  Irishman  and  Irishwoman.  The  Republic  guarantees  re- 
ligious and  civil  liberty,  equal  rights  and  equal  opportunities  to  all 
its  citizens,  and  declares  its  resolve  to  pursue  the  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  the  whole  nation  and  of  all  its  parts,  cherishing  all  the 
children  of  the  nation  equally,  and  oblivious  of  the  differences  care- 
fully fostered  by  an  alien  government,  which  have  divided  a  minor- 
ity from  the  majority  in  the  past. 

Until  our  arms  have  brought  the  opportune  moment  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  permanent  National  Government,  representative  of 
the  whole  people  of  Ireland  and  elected  by  the  suffrages  of  all  her 
men  and  women,  the  Provisional  Government,  hereby  constituted, 
will  administer  the  civil  and  military  affairs  of  the  Republic  in  trust 
for  the  people. 

We  place  the  cause  of  the  Irish  Republic  under  the  protection  of 
the  Most  High  God,  Whose  blessing  we  invoke  upon  our  arms,  and 
we  pray  that  no  one  who  serves  that  cause  will  dishonor  it  by  cow- 
ardice, inhumanity  or  rapine.  In  this  supreme  hour  the  Irish  nation 
must,  by  its  valor  and  discipline  and  by  the  readiness  of  its  chil- 
dren to  sacrifice  themselves  for  the  common  good,  prove  itself  worthy 
of  the  august  destiny  to  which  it  is  called. 

Signed  on  Behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government. 


Thomas  J.  Clarke 


Sean  MacDiarmada, 
P.  H.  Pearse, 
James  Connolly, 


Thomas  MacDonagh, 
Eamonn  Ceannt, 
Joseph  Plunkett. 


POBLACHT  NA  H  EIREANN. 

TEE  PROVISIONAL  SOYBRNMENT 

OF  THE 

IRISH  REPUBLIC 

TO  THE  PEOPLE  OP  IRELAND. 

IRISHMEN  AND  IRISHWOMEN  :  In  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  dead  generations 
from  which  she  receives  her  old  tradition  of  nationhood,  Ireland,  through  us,  summons 
her  children  to  her  flag  and  strikes  for  her  freedom. 

Having  organised  and  trained  her  manhood  through  her  secret  revolutionary 
organisation,  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  and  through  her  open,  military 
organisations,  the  Irish  Volunteers  and  the  Irish  Citizen  Army,  having  patiently 
perfected  her  discipline,  having  resolutely  waited  for  the  right  moment  to  reveal 
itself,  she  now  seizes  that  moment,  and,  supported  by  her  exiled  children  in  America 
and  by  gallant  allies  in  Europe,  but  relying  in  the  first  on  her  own  strength,  she 
6trikes  in  full  confidence  of  victory. 

We  declare  the  right  oi  the  people  of  Ireland  to  the  ownership  of  Ireland,  and  to 
the  unfettered  control  of  Irish  destinies,  to  be  sovereign  and  indefeasible.  The  long 
usurpation  of  that  right  by  a  foreign  people  and  government  has  not  extinguished  the 
right,  nor  can  it  ever  be  extinguished  except  by  the  destruction  of  the  Irish  people.  In 
every  generation  the  Irish  people  have  asserted  their  right  to  national  freedom  and 
sovereignty :  six  times  during  the  past  three  hundred  years  they  have  asserted  it  in 
arms.  Standing  on  that  fundamental  right  and  again  asserting  it  in  arms  in  the  face 
of  the  world,  we  hereby  proclaim  the  Irish,  Republic  as  a  Sovereign  Independent  State, 
and  we  pledge  our  lives  and  the  lives  of  our  comrades-in-arms  to  the  cause  of  its  freedom, 
of  its  welfare,  and  of  its  exaltation  among  the  nations. 

The  Irish  Republic  is  entitled  to.  and  hereby  claims,  the  allegiance  of  every 
Irishman  and  Irishwoman.  The  Republic  guarantees  religious  and  civil  liberty,  equal 
rights  and  equal  opportunities  to  all  its  citizens,  abd  declares  its  resolve  to  pursue 
the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  whole  nation  and  of  all  its  parts,  cherishing  all 
the  children  of  the  nation  equally,  and  oblivious  of  the  differences  carefully  fostered 
by  an  alien  government,  which  have  divided  a  minority  from  the  majority  in  the  past. 

Until  our  arms  have  brought  the  opportune  moment  for  the  establishment  of  a 
permanent  National  Government,  representative  of  the  whole  people  of  Ireland  and 
elected  by  the  suffrages  of  all  her  men  and  women,  the  Provisional  Government,  hereby 
constituted,  will  administer  the  civil  and  military  affairs  of  the  Republic  in  trust  for 
the  people. 

We  place  the  cause  of  the  Irish  Republic  under  tha  protection  of  the  Most  High  God. 
Whose  blessing  we  invoke  upon  our  arms,  and  we  pray  that  no  one  who  serves  that 
eause  will  dishonour  it  by  cowardice,  inhumanity,  or  rapine.  In  this  supreme  hour 
the  Irish  nation  must,  by  its  valour  and  discipline  and  by  the  readiness  of  its  children 
to  sacrifice  themselves  for  the  common  good,  prove  itself  worthyof  the  august  destiny 
to  which  it  is  called. 

Signed  on  Behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government, 

THOMAS  J.  CLARKE. 

SEAN  Mac  D1ARMADA.  THOMAS.  MacDONAGH. 
P.  H.  PBARSE.  EAMONN  CEANNT. 

JAMES  CONNOLLY.  JOSEPH  PLUNKETT: 

Reduced  Facsimile  of  the  Proclamation  off  tha  "Irish  Republic 

Promulgated  on  Enter  Sunday.  23rd  April.  1916.  at  Liberty  Hall.  Dublin. 
The  aeren  airnatoriee  to  thia  document  were  all  executed 


CHAPTER  XLIV 


The  Twenty-fourth  of  April 

A FEW  minutes  after  two  o'clock  on  Sunday  afternoon, 
after  a  session  lasting  nine  hours,  the  conference  in 
Liberty  Hall  came  to  an  end.  The  rising  was  then 
a  matter  of  a  few  hours  more  of  preparation.  The  Proclama- 
tion was  ready  to  be  issued  to  the  people.  Future  generations 
of  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen  will  pass  on  that  document,  will 
see  in  it  the  one  and  only  charter  of  Irish  liberty  that  will 
satisfy  the  aspirations  of  the  Irish  people  and  the  Irish  nation. 
Brief  and  to  the  point,  it  omits  nothing;  it  states  in  the 
plainest  terms  the  type  of  national  existence  to  which  Ireland 
aspired,  and  to  which  she  must  aspire  until  those  aspirations 
are  realized  in  their  fullest  fruition.  It  set  forth  that  there 
could  be  no  compromise,  no  bartering  of  any  iota  of  that 
freedom  which  is  the  birthright  of  universal  man.  It  took 
its  stand  on  a  free  and  a  united  nation,  a  nation  of  free  men 
and  women,  with  equal  civil  and  religious  rights,  under  a 
government  elected  and  maintained  by  themselves  and 
established  for  the  betterment,  happiness,  and  prosperity  of 
all  the  people  of  every  part  of  Ireland.  No  stranger  or  more 
striking  contrast  can  be  imagined  than  exists  between  this 
declaration  and  the  watered-down  measure  of  "Home  Rule" 
that  the  Parliamentary  Party  was  willing  to  accept  as  a  full 
and  final  settlement  of  the  claims  of  the  Irish  people. 

When  the  conference  came  to  an  end,  the  girls  of  the 
Cumann  na  mBan  were  still  waiting  in  the  corridor,  wondering 
what  was  going  to  be  the  result  of  it  all.  Jim  Connolly  called 
to  them  when  he  opened  the  door,  and  told  them  that  they 
would  be  required  to  act  as  special  messengers.  It  was  these 
girls  who  had  been  selected  to  carry  the  call  for  a  remobili- 
zation  to  the  various  centers  throughout  the  country.  WThen 


286   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


he  had  handed  them  their  orders,  he  produced  the  Procla- 
mation and,  while  they  stood  by  in  silence,  read  it  to  them. 
They  were  thus  the  first,  outside  of  the  seven  who  had  signed 
it  and  the  printers,  to  learn  the  terms  of  the  historic  document. 

It  was  noticeable  that  the  men,  evidently  relieved  after  the 
long  and  trying  strain  of  the  protracted  conference,  were  in 
very  good  humor.  Although  they  were  well  aware  that  they 
had  embarked  on  an  enterprise  which  almost  certainly  meant 
death  to  most  or  all  of  them,  they  were  happy  in  the  con- 
sciousness that  they  had  at  last  come  to  close  quarters  with 
the  ancient  enemy,  that  there  was  at  last  going  to  be  a 
chance  to  avenge  some  of  the  insults  that  had  been  offered 
to  their  country,  to  their  women,  and  to  themselves.  This  was 
the  day  for  which  they  had  been  hoping  and  longing,  for 
which  they  had  been  working  for  years,  and  the  realization 
that  it  was  about  to  dawn  brought  to  them  a  happiness  that 
can  be  fully  understood  only  by  those  who  have  held  and 
still  hold  the  hopes  and  ideals  that  actuated  the  Republican 
leaders  of  Dublin. 

The  fact  that  they  were  about  to  try  their  strength  against 
the  might  and  fury  of  the  greatest  Empire  that  has  ever 
tyrannized  over  the  fortunes  of  mankind  daunted  these  men 
not  at  all.  They  knew  that  they  were  going  to  make  a 
forlorn  stand  against  overwhelming  odds,  and  that  the  lover 
and  protector  of  the  small  nationalities  would  spare  no  effort 
to  smash  their  newly-born  Republic  in  the  first  hour  of  its 
existence.  But  they  also  knew  that  they  and  their  country 
had  been  betrayed  by  Mr.  Redmond  and  his  Party,  that 
conscription  was  about  to  be  enforced  in  Ireland,  and  that 
an  armed  protest  was  the  only  thing  to  save  the  soul  of  the 
nation  and  prevent  the  British  riding  roughshod  over  every- 
thing they  held  most  sacred. 

With  the  departure  of  the  members  of  the  Cumann  na 
mBan  on  their  mission  to  the  different  parts  of  the  country 
to  which  they  had  been  assigned,  the  Signers  of  the  Proclama- 
tion set  about  making  their  final  arrangements  for  the  events 
of  the  coming  day.    As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  it  had 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  287 


been  the  original  intention  to  declare  the  Republic  on  Easter 
Sunday,  when  the  arms  from  Germany  were  also  to  have 
been  landed  on  the  Kerry  coast  under  the  guard  of  the 
Republicans.  All  those  plans  had  been  spoiled,  and  it  was 
now  necessary  to  make  other  arrangements  for  the  morrow. 
It  was  realized  that  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  and  it  was 
fortunate  that  the  plans  had  been  laid  well  in  advance  so 
that  a  great  deal  of  the  work  had  already  been  accomplished. 

It  was  decided  that  the  original  plans  should  be  adhered 
to,  and  that  the  first  attack  should  be  made  on  the  General 
Post  Office  in  O'Connell  Street.  Simultaneously  different 
bodies  of  Volunteers  were  to  make  an  attack  on  the  Castle, 
the  Magazine  Fort  in  the  Phcenix  Park,  Boland's  Mills,  the 
Four  Courts,  the  railroad  stations,  and  other  points  where 
the  Republicans  would  be  able  to  defend  themselves  for  a 
lengthy  period.  It  was  also  decided  that  a  section  of  the 
Citizen  Army  should  entrench  itself  in  Stephen's  Green.  In 
fact  the  original  plans  were  to  be  carried  out  with  little  if 
any  alteration,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  men  in 
Dublin,  if  they  were  to  be  successful,  would  have  to  await  for 
a  longer  period  relief  from  the  other  sections  of  the  country, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  these  sections  would  have  to  reassemble 
—  a  process  which  would  necessarily  take  some  time.  During 
Sunday  there  were  several  other  conferences  held  in  Liberty 
Hall.  The  Countess  Markievicz  was  sent  for,  as  were  others 
of  the  leaders,  and  the  work  of  assigning  these  to  their 
respective  spheres  of  action  occupied  several  hours. 

While  these  councils  were  being  held,  The  O'Rahilly  arrived 
back  from  Limerick.  He  was  proceeding  to  his  home  when 
he  happened  to  meet  one  of  the  Volunteer  captains,  and 
learned  from  him  that  important  meetings  were  being  held  in 
Liberty  Hall.  Without  further  delay  he  headed  his  car  for 
Beresford  Place  and  reported  to  the  leaders  there.  He  told 
them  of  the  mission  he  had  undertaken  to  the  south  and  of 
its  result.  He  was  amazed  to  learn  that  the  men  of  Dublin 
had  decided  to  declare  the  Republic  notwithstanding  the 
orders  of  Eoin  MacNeill. 


288   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


But  The  O'Rahilly  had  never  a  second's  hesitation  when  he 
learned  that  there  was  to  be  a  rising  on  the  morrow.  He 
was  never  the  man  to  shirk,  and  he  had  no  sooner  learned 
that  the  arrangements  had  been  made  and  that  the  Republic 
was  to  be  declared  the  following  day  at  noon  than  he  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  being  there  to  play  his  part.  He 
resented  at  once  the  suggestion  of  the  others  that  he  need 
not  stay  if  he  believed  that  the  time  was  not  ripe,  and 
declared  that  his  place  was  with  his  men  wherever  they  were 
to  be  assigned,  and  that  he  would  fight  and  fall  with  his 
comrades. 

There  was  no  sleep  in  Liberty  Hall  until  long  after  midnight 
when  the  leaders  and  some  of  their  men  forced  themselves  to 
rest,  knowing  that  it  might  be  long  before  they  would  dare 
sleep  again.  With  the  exception  of  the  armed  guards  outside 
and  inside  the  Hall,  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  the  mo- 
mentous events  that  were  about  to  take  place.  In  the  other 
centers  the  activity  was  so  well  ordered  that  the  spies  of  the 
Castle  were  unable  to  discover  anything,  and  in  the  Castle, 
where  conferences  had  also  been  the  order  of  the  day,  security 
was  felt  owing  to  the  fact  that  there  had  been  no  movements 
of  the  Volunteers  reported.  But  it  was  the  calm  before  the 
storm. 

There  were  two  other  men  who  must  have  anxiously 
awaited  the  coming  of  the  morning.  One  of  these  was  Eoin 
MacNeill.  Where  he  was,  was  unknown  to  the  majority  of 
his  followers.  Whether  he  had  realized  that  he  had  made  a 
fatal  error  of  judgment  and  that  the  Castle  would  certainly 
take  action  within  the  week  to  disarm  the  Volunteers,  is  a 
secret  that  he  alone  possessed.  But  certain  it  is  that  he 
disappeared  out  of  Dublin.  If  he  remained  in  the  city,  his 
whereabouts  were  unknown  to  his  followers.  Somewhere  out 
there  in  the  silence  and  the  darkness  that  surrounded  the  city, 
Eoin  MacNeill,  a  lonely  and  a  broken  man,  was  awaiting  the 
coming  of  that  dawn  that  would,  he  knew,  be  fraught  with  so 
much  peril  and  danger  to  the  country  he  loved  so  well. 

In  the  city  itself  waited  another  man  with  deep  bitterness 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  289 


in  his  heart.  This  was  Buhner  Hobson,  held,  since  the  pre- 
vious Friday,  a  prisoner  in  his  own  house  by  his  own  friends, 
who  made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  they  doubted  his  loyalty. 
Bulmer  Hobson  had  been  the  secretary  to  the  Volunteers,  had 
been  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  first  meeting  held  in  the 
Rotunda  Rink,  had  worked  day  and  night  on  Freedom  and  in 
other  ways  for  the  success  of  the  movement.  But  there  were 
times  when  he  seemed  too  anxious  for  the  Rebellion,  as  his 
resolution  in  May,  1915,  calling  for  an  immediate  declaration 
of  war  showed,  while  at  other  times  he  was  urging  caution. 
There  had  been  more  occasions  than  one  when  he  had  been 
under  suspicion,  notably  when  he  voted  for  the  surrender  of 
the  Volunteers  to  Mr.  Redmond.  Since  that  time  he  had 
never  been  trusted,  and  had  not  been  on  the  inside  of  the 
movement  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had  been  previously. 
To  prevent  all  possibility  of  mistake  he  was  quietly  placed 
under  arrest  in  his  own  home  on  Good  Friday,  and  was 
advised  to  remain  there. 

Easter  Monday,  the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  dawned  cool 
and  misty  with  white  clouds  encircling  the  Golden  Spears 
that  rose  to  the  south  over  the  City  of  the  Hurdles.  With 
the  awakening  of  the  city  crowds  rapidly  began  to  fill  the 
streets.  The  seven  o'clock  Mass  at  the  Catholic  churches 
was  attended  by  vast  throngs,  and  the  holiday  crowds 
were  soon  very  much  in  evidence  in  all  parts  of  the  capital. 
While  it  was  common  knowledge  that  the  political  condition 
of  affairs  was  critical,  there  were  few  who  had  any  inkling 
of  what  was  about  to  transpire. 

Early  that  morning  a  message  was  received  at  Dublin 
Castle  that  brought  joy  to  the  hearts  of  the  military.  It 
came  from  Augustine  Birrell,  the  Chief  Secretary,  who  had 
at  last  been  forced  to  give  way  and  to  agree  to  the  proposals 
for  the  holding  of  a  pogrom,  in  which  the  Volunteers  and 
the  Citizen  Army  were  to  be  the  chief  victims.  The  message 
gave  the  desired  permission  for  the  disarming  of  the  Volun- 
teers and  the  men  of  the  Citizen  Army  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  Birrell  knew,  as  the  military  authorities  in  Ireland  knew, 


290   HISTORY  OP  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


that  this  would  certainly  result  in  the  shooting  down  of  hun- 
dreds of  men. 

It  happened,  however,  that  another  order  was  issued  in 
Dublin  that  morning,  an  order  of  somewhat  different  character. 
It  read  as  follows: 

DUBLIN  BRIGADE  ORDER, 
H.  Q. 
24th  April,  1916. 

1.  The  four  city  battalions  will  parade  for  inspection 
and  route  march  at  10  a.m.  to-day.  Commandants  will  ar- 
range centers. 

2.  Full  arms  and  equipment  and  one  day's  rations. 

Thomas  MacDonagh, 

Commandant 

Coy.  E.  3.  will  parade  at  Beresford  Place  at  10  a.m. 

P.  H.  Peakse, 
Commandant 

At  the  same  time  that  this  order  was  issued  a  message  was 
forwarded  to  all  of  the  country  districts  as  follows: 

Dublin  has  acted. 

P.  H.  Pearse 

It  was  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  the  Citizen  Army 
paraded  outside  Liberty  Hall.  After  they  had  formed  up, 
James  Connolly,  the  Commandant  of  the  Dublin  forces, 
made  an  inspection  of  the  men.  While  this  inspection  was  in 
progress,  a  messenger  arrived  on  a  motor  cycle  and  handed  a 
paper  to  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  battalion  of  police  who 
were  on  duty  in  Beresford  Place.  This  officer  gave  an  order, 
the  police  were  paraded  and  marched  away.  It  was  the  first 
sign  of  the  coming  storm.  The  Castle  authorities  had  decided 
to  remove  the  police  from  the  streets  so  that  the  ground 
would  be  clear  for  the  operations  of  the  military.  After  the 
parade  the  men  of  the  Citizen  Army  also  disbanded  for  the 
time  being. 

Thereafter  there  was  nothing  in  the  city  beyond  the  usual 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  291 


bustle  and  noise  of  Bank  Holiday.  The  crowds  marched  up 
and  down  O'Connell  Street,  wending  their  way  to  the  Park 
or  to  Glasnevin  or  other  of  the  historic  places  around  the  city. 
The  tram  cars  were  crowded  inside  and  out,  the  jarveys  were 
doing  a  brisk  business,  and  everything  was  full  of  animation 
and  joy. 

Shortly  before  noon  there  was  heard  the  ordered  tramp  of 
marching  men,  and  a  body  of  Volunteers  swung  along  O'Con- 
nell Street.  They  advanced  at  a  steady  pace,  and  those  who 
turned  to  watch  them  could  not  but  notice  the  fine  carriage 
of  the  men  and  the  neatness  of  their  equipment.  The  men 
comprised  a  company  of  Irish  Volunteers  from  Kimmage, 
and  they  had  marched  into  the  city  under  secret  orders. 
The  crowds  in  the  street  saw  no  significance  in  their  appear- 
ance, thinking  that  they  were  out  on  a  route  march,  an  event 
that  had  become  commonplace  in  the  country  for  months 
past.  With  an  easy  martial  swing  the  men  marched  up  the 
street  towards  the  Post  Office.  The  head  of  the  column 
swung  into  Prince's  Street.  With  dramatic  suddenness  a 
shot  cracked  out,  sounding  through  the  air  from  one  end  of 
the  street  to  the  other. 

It  was  the  opening  shot  of  the  Rebellion. 


CHAPTER  XLV 


The  First  Blow 

X"¥  THEN  that  first  shot  rang  out  from  the  General 
VV  Post  Office,  someone  shouted  that  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers had  been  fired  on  by  the  military,  and  in- 
dignation blazed  out  in  a  moment.  But  those  who  were 
closer  to  the  scene  knew  that  it  was  something  else  that  had 
happened. 

When  the  men  from  Kimmage  arrived  at  the  Post  Office, 
they  saw  standing  at  the  corner  of  Prince's  Street,  Clarke, 
Pearse,  The  O'Rahilly,  and  Connolly.  At  a  signal  from 
Pearse,  the  leader  gave  the  command  for  his  men  to  turn 
alongside  the  Post  Office.  There  was  a  halt  for  a  few  seconds, 
and  then  the  men  were  led  into  the  building  by  the  two 
entrances  leading  to  the  counters  and  by  the  large  entrance 
further  down  the  street  that  led  towards  the  stables  and  the 
back  of  the  building.  It  was  this  detachment  that  entered 
the  interior  of  the  Post  Office  first.  Those  who  entered  by 
the  counters  requested  the  people  there  on  business  to  get 
out.  After  the  first  gasp  of  surprise  they  lost  no  time  in 
doing  so. 

Those  who  entered  by  the  rear  encountered  a  shadow  of 
opposition  from  two  or  three  of  the  van  drivers  who  were 
getting  ready  to  take  the  one  o'clock  mail  to  the  railroad 
stations.  A  shot  fired  into  the  air,  which  echoed  all  over 
O'Connell  Street,  induced  them  to  stop  their  arguments. 
They  stood  aside  while  the  Volunteers  marched  into  the 
building,  headed  by  Connolly  and  Pearse,  with  The  O'Rahilly 
and  Tom  Clarke  in  close  attendance. 

The  officials  inside  the  Post  Office  were  speechless  at  the 
invasion,  and  seemed  unable  to  comprehend  what  was  taking 
place.    But  the  rapidity  and  the  precision  with  which  the 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  293 


Republicans  worked  soon  made  them  realize  that  something 
more  than  a  holiday  joke  was  intended.  A  number  of  the 
Volunteers  were  told  off  to  smash  the  large  windows  facing 
on  O'Connell  Street,  this  being  a  necessary  precaution  owing 
to  the  possible  later  danger  from  flying  glass  should  the 
windows  be  smashed  from  the  outside  by  an  attacking  force. 
The  postal  officials  meanwhile  quickly  obeyed  the  order  to  quit. 

The  excited  crowd  of  onlookers  in  O'Connell  Street,  still 
wondering  what  was  happening,  saw  with  astonishment  the 
officials  of  the  Post  Office  running  from  the  building.  At  the 
same  time  several  voices  from  within  the  windows  warned 
the  people  to  move  away,  and  a  second  or  so  later  the  glass 
was  sent  crashing  into  the  streets,  propelled  by  the  rifle  butts 
of  the  Republicans.  The  Post  Office  had  fallen  to  the  first 
attack,  and  the  Irish  had  scored  the  first  victory. 

A  number  of  the  Republicans  now  appeared  coming  out  of 
the  building.  They  proceeded  to  post  on  the  big  pillars 
outside  the  Post  Office,  and  in  other  conspicuous  positions, 
the  Proclamation  of  the  Republic.  It  was  then,  and  then 
only,  that  the  people  realized  just  what  had  taken  place. 
As  they  were  reading  the  Proclamation  and  passing  the  word 
around,  another  company  of  men,  this  time  members  of  the 
Citizen  Army,  swung  into  O'Connell  Street  from  Abbey 
Street,  and  marched  into  the  Post  Office.  By  this  time  the 
people  knew  the  meaning  of  their  action,  and  a  great  and 
rousing  cheer  rose  from  the  dense  crowds  that  thronged  the 
street.  Hats  and  caps  were  thrown  into  the  air.  One  old 
woman  knelt  down  in  the  roadway  and,  raising  her  hands  to 
heaven,  prayed  for  the  success  of  the  Rebellion,  and  gave 
thanks  to  God  that  she  had  lived  to  see  it.  Men  shouted 
and  cheered,  and  the  women  vied  with  them  in  their  en- 
thusiasm. It  seemed  as  though  everyone  had  suddenly 
realized  that  the  Rebellion  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world,  that  the  time  had  come  when  there  would  be  an  end 
of  the  political  trickery  that  had  been  practiced  on  the  people 
for  years  past,  and  that  the  actions  of  the  Government  had  led 
inevitably  to  the  scenes  they  were  then  witnessing. 


294   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Before  the  cheering  had  ceased,  there  appeared  a  number  of 
the  Republicans  on  the  roof  of  the  Post  Office,  moving  hither 
and  thither  in  smart,  orderly  fashion.  Then  one  man  walked 
over  to  the  corner,  facing  on  Prince's  and  O'Connell  Streets, 
where  from  the  top  of  a  flagpole  flew  the  banner  of  England. 
In  breathless  silence  the  crowd  watched  this  man  untie  the 
halyards  and  haul  down  the  flag,  which  he  let  fall  into  the 
street  below.  There  was  another  cheer  at  this,  then  silence 
again.  With  the  greatest  imperturbability  the  man  on  the 
roof  attached  another  flag  to  the  ropes,  and  for  a  brief  second 
was  seen  to  press  its  folds  to  his  lips.  He  then  drew  it  up. 
At  that  moment  the  sun  broke  through  the  clouds  and  flashed 
on  the  tricolor  of  Ireland,  the  green,  white,  and  orange. 

The  crowd  below  seemed  awed  for  a  moment.  The  solem- 
nity, the  greatness  of  the  occasion,  was  not  lost  on  them. 
But  then  there  arose  another  cheer,  the  bold,  defiant  shout 
of  men  made  free.  And  with  that  cheer  came  the  awakening 
of  the  land,  the  rousing  from  its  long  and  fitful  slumber  of 
nigh  half  a  century.  That  cheer  was  the  cry  of  freedom,  of 
hope  and  gladness,  of  faith  and  thanksgiving.  The  day  had 
at  last  dawned,  and  Ireland  was  once  more  to  make  a  fight 
for  freedom. 

Almost  at  the  same  time  there  arose  another  cry,  this  time 
a  shout  of  warning.  It  came  from  far  up  the  street  in  the 
direction  of  the  Rotunda.  "The  soldiers  are  coming,' '  cried 
a  hundred  voices,  and  the  men  who  were  not  armed  and  the 
women  who  were  among  the  onlookers  began  to  scatter  in 
all  directions.  As  they  did  so  there  came  a  swift  clatter  of 
horses'  hoofs,  and  down  the  street  appeared  a  column  of 
Lancers,  their  horses  at  full  gallop  and  their  rifles  ready  for 
immediate  use.  A  command  was  shouted  in  the  Post  Office, 
another  outside,  and  immediately  a  line  of  the  Republicans 
was  thrown  across  the  street  to  the  Imperial  Hotel  as  a  first 
line  of  defense.  A  score  of  rifle  barrels  made  their  appearance 
at  the  same  time  over  the  parapet  of  the  roof  of  the  Post 
Office. 

When  still  some  distance  away  the  Lancers  fired  a  volley, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  295 


and  then  put  spurs  to  their  horses.  The  reply  from  the  Irish 
came  almost  the  same  instant,  and  so  well  directed  was  the 
fire  that  five  or  six  of  the  riders  were  seen  to  waver  in  their 
saddles  and  then  fall  headlong  to  the  ground.  Without 
waiting  for  the  command,  the  Lancers  turned  and  fled,  sped 
on  their  way  by  the  derisive  cheers  of  the  Irish.  At  full  speed 
the  British  galloped  back  up  O'Connell  Street,  leaving  their 
dead  and  wounded  behind  them,  and  disappeared  west  along 
Parnell  Street.  They  kept  up  their  speed  along  Capel  Street, 
and  on  over  Grattan  Bridge  into  the  Castle.  Before  the  day 
was  over,  their  ride  had  become  famous  throughout  the  city 
as  the  "  Leopards  town  Races." 

But,  while  six  of  the  Lancers  lay  in  the  street  dead  as  a 
result  of  the  first  volley  fired  by  the  Irish,  their  volley  also 
had  not  been  entirely  without  effect.  When  the  shots  rang 
out,  a  man  at  the  end  of  the  line  across  the  street  by  the 
Imperial  Hotel  gave  a  groan  and  rolled  over  on  his  side. 
As  soon  as  the  Lancers  had  ridden  away  in  confusion,  his 
comrades  carried  him  into  the  Post  Office.  He  was  John 
Keely,  a  member  of  E  Company,  Fourth  Battalion,  Irish 
Volunteers.  He  was  the  first  to  fall  in  the  Rebellion.  Edu- 
cated at  the  Christian  Brothers'  Schools  at  Kingstown,  he  had 
been  an  enthusiastic  Irish-Irelander  all  his  life.  When  a 
mere  schoolboy,  he  had  assisted  in  the  teaching  of  Gaelic  in 
the  Glasthule  Branch  of  the  Gaelic  League,  and  later  in 
Rathfarnham.  He  was  an  ardent  Volunteer  from  the  first 
inception  of  the  movement,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  battalion  to  which  he  belonged.  On  the  morning 
of  Easter  Monday  he  said  good-bye  to  his  wife  and  joined 
his  company,  which  arrived  at  the  Post  Office  along  with  the 
members  of  the  Citizen  Army.  When  he  was  carried  to  the 
Post  Office,  his  comrades  saw  that  he  was  seriously  wounded. 
They  decided  that  it  would  be  better  to  have  him  taken  to 
the  hospital  while  there  was  still  time,  and  he  was  promptly 
conveyed  to  Jervis  Street  Hospital.  He  lingered  there  for 
some  hours,  his  one  regret  being  that  he  had  fallen  so  early 
in  the  fray,  and  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  do  more  for  his 


296   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


country.  He  died  in  the  early  hours  of  Tuesday  morning, 
and  was  later  buried  in  Deansgrange. 

Meantime  everything  was  proceeding  with  ordered  rapidity 
inside  the  Post  Office.  Every  article  of  furniture  that  was 
not  required  for  the  use  of  the  men  inside  was  piled  up  against 
the  windows.  The  long  slits  over  the  letter  chutes  were 
admirably  adapted  for  rifle  fire,  giving  the  men  inside  a 
complete  command  of  the  street,  and  making  a  frontal  at- 
tack almost  impossible  of  success.  Barricades  were  thrown 
up  behind  these  to  make  them  still  more  secure,  and  men  as- 
signed to  remain  on  guard. 

Up  on  the  roof  there  were  more  men  perfecting  the  defenses 
of  the  building.  One  by  one  they  were  assigned  to  places  of 
importance,  where  they  were  able  to  keep  watch  over  the 
full  length  of  O'Connell  Street  and  all  along  Henry  Street 
and  Mary  Street.  Pearse  was  indefatigable  throughout  the 
whole  building.  He  and  his  colleagues  went  about  their  work 
with  a  smile  and  a  hearty  word  for  all  with  whom  they  came 
into  contact,  and  the  men  themselves  were  laughing  and  jok- 
ing, and  now  and  then  whistling  a  tune  as  they  obeyed  their 
orders  with  military  precision.  While  there  could  be  not  the 
slightest  doubt  as  to  the  grim  determination  that  animated 
each  and  every  one  of  them,  they  were  lighthearted  and  gay 
in  the  realization  that  they  were  at  last  to  grapple  with  their 
hereditary  foe. 

Within  an  hour  after  the  defeat  of  the  Lancers,  President 
Pearse,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  his  officers,  went  outside 
to  the  front  of  the  Post  Office,  and,  holding  up  his  hand  for 
silence,  addressed  the  throngs  that  surged  around  the  building. 
The  crowd  pressed  up  a  little  closer  and  quietly  waited  for 
him  to  speak. 

Then,  in  a  few  simple  words,  he  told  his  hearers  why  they 
had  decided  to  proclaim  the  Republic,  the  many  incidents 
that  had  led  up  to  that  decision,  and  the  arrangements  that 
had  been  made  by  the  Government  that  day  to  take  the 
arms  from  the  Volunteers  and  the  Citizen  Army  and  to  hold 
a  general  pogrom  in  the  streets  of  the  city.    He  told  them 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  297 


that  they  had  been  betrayed  by  those  who  had  been  the 
depositories  of  the  trust  of  the  Irish  people  for  a  generation, 
and  that  their  only  hope  lay  in  armed  resistance.  When  his 
speech  was  concluded,  he  made  a  call  for  volunteers  to  join 
the  forces  in  the  Post  Office  and  at  other  points  which  had 
also  been  attacked  and  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish. 

His  appeal  was  listened  to  with  eager  attention,  and  there 
was  an  immediate  response  to  the  call  for  volunteers.  Men 
stepped  from  the  crowd  from  all  directions,  and  mustered  in 
on  the  sidewalk  on  a  space  kept  clear  by  the  Republican 
soldiers.  They  then  faced  around  to  the  right,  and  followed 
Pearse  into  the  Post  Office.  Just  about  this  time  consign- 
ments of  provisions  were  taken  into  the  building  and  promptly 
stored  away  in  the  cellars. 

A  little  while  later  the  rougher  element  that  existed  in  the 
city  began  to  seize  what  appeared  to  them  an  excellent  chance 
for  looting.  A  number  of  stores  were  smashed  in,  and  it  is 
not  unworthy  of  record  that  even  the  crowd  that  took  part 
in  this,  the  one  unhappy  feature  of  the  occasion,  made  choice 
of  stores  that  bore  English  names  or  were  known  to  be 
owned  by  the  foreigners.  In  this  they  followed  the  example 
set  by  the  mobs  in  London  who  raided  and  looted  German 
stores  in  that  city  as  an  act  of  retaliation  for  the  Zeppelin 
raids  made  during  the  war. 

Just  as  the  looting  began,  a  small  man,  dressed  in  an  Irish 
tweed  knickerbocker  suit,  jumped  up  on  the  step  of  an  outside 
car  at  the  Pillar,  and  began  to  appeal  to  the  crowd  to  refrain 
from  looting  the  stores.  Up  to  that  time  he  had  been  an  in- 
terested but  a  passive  onlooker  of  the  taking  of  the  Post  Office, 
the  encounter  with  the  Lancers,  and  the  other  incidents  which 
have  been  mentioned.  Now  he  sprang  into  activity,  and 
begged  the  people  to  behave  themselves,  but  the  rabble  merely 
laughed  at  him  and  continued  its  work  of  destruction. 

The  man  who  made  the  appeal  was  Sheehy-Skeffington, 
one  of  the  best-known  figures  in  Dublin  —  a  man  who  was 
not  in  any  way  identified  with  the  Rebellion  or  the  men  who 
led  it.    He  was,  in  the  first  place,  just  as  much  opposed  to 


298   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  Germans  as  to  the  English  in  the  world  war,  and  was 
certainly  opposed  to  any  revolutionary  movement.  But, 
although  a  man  of  peace,  he  was  also  a  man  of  remarkable 
courage,  and  he  never  hesitated  for  a  second  in  doing  the 
right  thing  as  he  saw  it.  When  he  perceived  that  he  had  no 
influence  over  the  looters,  he  at  once  proceeded  to  the  Post 
Office  to  acquaint  President  Pearse  with  the  facts  of  the  situ- 
ation. As  a  result,  Pearse  sent  soldiers  to  stop  the  looting 
and  at  the  same  time  issued  a  call  for  Volunteer  Police. 

At  the  moment  of  the  Proclamation  of  the  Republic  one 
of  the  big  trolley  cars  that  run  to  Howth  was  turning  the 
corner  on  its  outward  journey  and  had  stopped  at  the  entrance 
to  North  Earl  Street.  Connolly  had  taken  note  of  this,  and 
sent  a  company  of  men,  armed  with  bombs,  to  the  car.  The 
bombs  were  placed  under  the  car  and  exploded,  with  the 
result  that  it  was  thrown  off  the  rails  and  across  the  street, 
forming  a  framework  for  an  admirable  barricade  in  North 
Earl  Street.  The  work  of  completing  this  barricade  was 
then  taken  in  hand,  and  in  a  remarkably  short  space  of  time 
a  substantial  barrier  had  been  erected  blocking  this  approach 
to  the  Post  Office. 

All  this  time  people  were  walking  up  and  down  O'Connell 
Street  in  the  usual  manner,  but  taking  the  keenest  interest  in 
the  work  that  was  being  done  by  the  Republicans.  Messengers 
were  now  constantly  arriving  at  the  Post  Office,  and  reports 
were  being  received  and  sent  to  the  various  other  centers  held 
by  the  Irish.  Since  the  attack  by  the  Lancers  there  had  been 
no  further  appearance  of  the  military  in  O'Connell  Street,  and 
the  police  were  nowhere  to  be  seen,  having  been  taken  off  the 
city  earlier  in  the  day  by  the  Castle  authorities. 

The  evening  was  beginning  to  close  in  on  the  youthful 
Republic,  and  there  were  still  no  signs  of  the  enemy.  All 
traffic  through  the  street  had  long  since  been  at  a  standstill, 
excepting  for  the  crowds  that  paraded  up  and  down.  And, 
as  the  lengthening  shadows  crept  across  the  street,  a  cornet 
player  on  the  roof  of  the  Post  Office  began  the  playing  of 
"Who  Fears  to  Speak  of  '98?" 


CHAPTER  XLVI 


In  Stephen's  Green 

PRACTICALLY  at  the  same  moment  that  the  attack 
was  made  on  the  General  Post  Office,  similar  attacks 
were  delivered  at  other  points  in  accordance  with  the 
plan  of  campaign.  Among  these  was  Stephen's  Green,  on 
the  South  Side,  one  of  the  most  important  points  that  the 
Irish  could  take,  since  they  were  thereby  enabled  to  com- 
mand two  of  the  most  important  of  the  southern  approaches 
to  the  center  of  the  city. 

The  Green  is  a  large  and  very  beautiful  park,  very  different 
now  from  what  it  was  in  the  days  when  Thackeray  referred 
to  it  as  "a  square  with  no  more  than  two  nursery  maids  to 
keep  company  with  the  statue  of  George  II."  From  a  scenic 
point  of  view,  it  is  the  finest  of  the  smaller  parks  in  the  city. 
With  many  shady  walks,  and  a  large  pool,  it  contains  a  sur- 
prising number  of  cool  and  picturesque  retreats.  There  is 
also  a  very  fine  lawn,  and  in  the  southwest  corner,  near  the 
Harcourt  Street  entrance,  is  a  very  fine  bronze  statuette  of 
Mangan,  one  of  the  sweetest  of  the  inspired  singers  of  the 
nation. 

Facing  the  northwest  corner,  near  Grafton  Street  and 
South  King  Street,  is  a  large  stone  arch,  modeled  on  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe  in  Paris,  but  on  a  much  smaller  scale.  To 
the  people  of  Dublin  this  is  known  as  the  Traitors'  Gate, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  it  had  been  erected  to  the  memory  of 
the  Irish  soldiers  who  sacrificed  their  lives  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Empire  to  crush  the  nationality  out  of  the  two  South 
African  Boer  Republics.  Along  the  northern  side,  further 
east,  is  the  top  of  Dawson  Street;  a  little  further  on  the  same 
side  the  top  of  Kildare  Street;  and  on  the  corner  of  this  street 


300   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  facing  the  Green  the  Shelborne  Hotel,  the  finest  of  its 
kind  in  the' city. 

At  the  northeast  corner  is  Merrion  Row,  and  then  a  short 
distance  down  on  the  east  side  is  Hume  Street.  Three- 
quarters  way  down  on  this  side  is  the  Royal  College  of  Science 
and  near  it  St.  Vincent's  Hospital.  At  the  southeast  corner 
are  Earlsfort  Terrace  and  Leeson  Street.  There  is  no  break 
in  the  south  side,  with  the  exception  of  the  entrance  leading 
into  the  grounds  of  the  University  College.  Harcourt  Street 
and  Cuffe  Street  begin  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
Green.  In  the  center  of  the  west  side  is  the  entrance  to 
York  Street,  and  on  this  corner,  and  facing  the  Green,  stands 
the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  there  are  ten  streets  leading 
directly  to  the  Green,  and  that  it  was  an  important  position 
to  hold.  Moreover,  on  the  west,  north,  and  east  side  of  the 
Green  are  trolley  lines  leading  to  every  section  of  the  city. 
In  addition,  only  a  little  way  to  the  south  along  Harcourt 
Street,  is  Harcourt  Street  Station,  which  connects  with  the 
railroads  running  through  Wicklow  and  thence  throughout 
the  south.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  was  a  position 
not  easy  to  defend  against  massed  infantry  attacks  after  a 
few  hours  of  machine-gun  fire.  The  Green  was  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  a  stout  iron  railing  that  rose  more  than  six 
feet  from  the  ground,  and  was  now  to  prove  a  valuable  ad- 
junct to  the  defenses  of  the  Republicans. 

A  few  minutes  before  noon  on  Easter  Monday  morning, 
a  large  number  of  the  men  of  the  Citizen  Army  and  the  Irish 
Volunteers  wended  their  way  to  the  Green.  Many  of  them 
walked  along  the  sidewalks  in  twos  and  threes,  while  a  com- 
pany, under  the  command  of  Michael  Mallin,  of  the  Citizen 
Army,  marched  from  Liberty  Hall,  along  Grafton  Street. 
All  the  entrances  to  the  Green  were  soon  closed,  with  the 
exception  of  that  leading  to  Harcourt  Street.  There  were 
crowds  of  people  in  the  Green  at  the  time,  and  the  Republican 
soldiers  walked  around  and  asked  them  to  leave,  saying  that 
some  important  maneuvers  were  about  to  take  place,  and  that 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  301 


they  would  be  better  outside  for  the  time  being.  At  the  stroke 
of  noon  the  Green  had  been  cleared  and  the  last  gate  closed. 

Commandant  Mallin,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  operations 
in  the  Green,  was  a  man  who  had  studied  military  science 
while  a  member  of  the  Citizen  Army,  and  had,  owing  to  his 
keen  insight  and  hard  work,  risen  to  the  position  of  staff 
officer  under  Connolly.  He  was  a  silk  weaver  by  trade,  one 
of  the  foremost  tradesmen  of  Dublin,  a  clever  musician,  and  a 
total  abstainer.  He  was  trusted  implicitly  by  the  men  under 
him,  who  knew  him  to  be  a  capable  and  energetic  leader  and 
a  thorough  patriot. 

By  the  time  that  the  gates  were  closed  the  attack  was  in 
progress  on  the  Post  Office  in  O'Connell  Street,  but  the  news 
of  what  was  taking  place  there  had  not  reached  to  the  south 
side.  Therefore,  the  people  outside  of  the  Green,  who  had 
at  first  believed  that  the  Volunteers  were  engaged  in  some  of 
their  regular  maneuvers,  were  rather  surprised  to  see  them 
produce  spades  and  picks  and  begin  to  dig  a  double  line  of 
trenches  around  the  Green  a  few  feet  inside  the  railings. 
They  were  probably  under  the  impression  that  this  was 
carrying  maneuvring  rather  too  far  along  the  road  to  realism, 
and  they  were  destined  to  be  still  more  amazed  before  many 
minutes  had  passed. 

The  gates  at  the  Merrion  Road  entrance  were  thrown  open 
and  a  number  of  the  Volunteers  marched  out,  deploying 
across  the  road  towards  the  Shelborne  Hotel.  At  that 
moment  a  large  automobile,  carrying  a  British  officer  from 
Kingstown,  came  along  at  a  fast  pace,  but  the  chauffeur 
halted  his  car  when  confronted  by  two  of  the  Citizen  Army 
with  leveled  rifles.  The  Irishmen  advanced,  and  ordered  the 
British  officer  to  get  out  of  the  machine,  which  he  did  with  a 
great  many  threats  and  curses.  He  was  led  a  prisoner  into 
the  Green,  his  revolver  taken  from  him,  and  he  was  allowed 
to  take  a  seat  under  the  shadow  of  the  statue  of  King 
George  II  in  the  center  of  the  park.  Two  of  the  men 
who  had  halted  the  car  jumped  into  it,  and  drove  down 
Kildare  Street  to  Liberty  Hall  for  further  supplies. 


302   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


The  capture  of  the  British  officer  was  the  signal  for  the 
opening  of  operations  on  all  sides  of  the  Green.  While  some 
of  the  men  were  perfecting  their  defenses  within,  many  more 
were  at  work  on  the  three  sides  of  the  Green  outside.  Every 
automobile  that  came  along  was  halted,  the  occupants  told 
to  return  to  their  homes  as  best  they  might,  and  the  car  over- 
turned to  form  a  section  of  the  barricades  that  were  being 
thrown  up  at  every  street  entrance  to  the  square.  By  this 
time  the  people  in  the  streets  were  reading  the  Proclamations 
that  had  been  posted  up,  and  were  aware  of  what  was  being 
done.  While  many  of  the  men  went  over  and  joined  with 
the  Republicans,  the  majority  of  the  pedestrians  lost  no  time 
in  getting  outside  the  danger  zone,  evidently  knowing  that 
the  work  on  hand  was  serious. 

Incoming  and  outgoing  trolley  cars  along  the  west,  north, 
and  east  sides  of  the  Green  were  halted  at  the  corners,  their 
passengers  made  to  get  out,  the  motormen  and  conductors  dis- 
missed from  the  cars,  and  the  cars  turned  over  on  their  sides 
by  means  of  bombs  to  form  barricades.  Here,  as  in  other 
portions  of  the  city,  the  manner  in  which  these  barricades 
were  constructed  offered  an  insight  into  the  thoroughness 
with  which  the  men  had  been  drilled  and  the  study  which 
their  officers  had  given  to  this  important  subject.  In  every 
case  the  barricades  were  so  formed  as  to  give  the  riflemen 
behind  them  plenty  of  room  to  take  a  clear  aim,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  protect  them  from  the  attackers.  They  were 
also  sufficiently  strong  to  withstand  machine-gun  bombard- 
ment and  even  the  attacks  of  the  one  and  two  pounders.  Car 
was  packed  into  car  in  a  most  scientific  manner,  and  the 
barricades  were  built  up  with  every  available  article,  not 
the  least  part  of  the  construction  being  the  sacks  filled  with 
the  soil  taken  from  the  trenches,  which  proved  to  be  practi- 
cally impervious  to  rifle  fire  at  any  range. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  defenders  of  the  Green  were 
assured  of  having  to  withstand  a  siege,  supplies  of  all  kinds 
were  taken  into  the  park.  It  was  while  an  automobile  filled 
with  provisions  was  on  its  way  through  Grafton  Street  to  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  303 


Green  that  the  first  clash  in  this  district  took  place.  This  was 
shortly  before  one  o'clock.  The  automobile  was  piled  high 
with  boxes  that  had  been  loaded  at  Liberty  Hall,  and  was 
traveling  none  too  fast  in  consequence.  Four  English  soldiers 
were  running  out  of  Nassau  Street  just  as  the  car  passed,  and, 
acting  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  all  of  them  stopped, 
leveled  their  rifles,  and  sent  a  volley  of  shots  after  the  ma- 
chine. The  car  was  then  only  a  few  yards  away,  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Wicklow  Street,  and  the  two  men  who  were  guarding 
the  car  immediately  let  fly  with  their  rifles  in  return.  The 
British,  who  had  emptied  their  magazines,  were  making  a 
bolt  to  get  into  the  shelter  afforded  by  Suffolk  Street,  but  they 
were  not  quick  enough.  The  marksmen  on  the  car  dropped 
the  leader  and  severely  wounded  another,  who  also  fell  in  his 
tracks.  The  other  two  succeeded  in  making  their  escape,  and 
did  not  wait  to  rescue  their  wounded  comrade  or  to  take 
away  the  body  of  the  dead  man.  This  incident  occurred 
while  the  street  was  still  crowded  with  people,  all  of  whom 
ran,  terrified,  to  the  nearest  shelter. 

Some  little  time  later  another  small  affray  took  place  at 
the  corner  of  York  Street  and  Aungier  Street.  Preparations 
were  being  made  to  defend  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
of  which  more  will  be  said  later,  and  a  company  of  the  Volun- 
teers were  erecting  a  barricade  at  this  point.  While  the  Vol- 
unteers were  at  work,  a  Rathfarnham  trolley  car  came  along 
at  a  speed  considerably  greater  than  was  usual.  The  speed 
of  the  car,  which  caused  it  to  sway  perilously  as  it  sped 
along  the  tracks,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Volunteers, 
and  one,  more  keen-eyed  than  the  rest,  noticed  khaki  uni- 
forms through  the  windows.  He  shouted  to  his  comrades 
that  the  car  was  filled  with  English  soldiers,  which  soon 
proved  to  be  the  fact,  and  as  it  passed  the  corner  it  was 
greeted  with  a  salute  of  rifle  bullets  which  crashed  through 
the  windows.  Before  the  shots  were  fired,  however,  the 
mo  tor  man,  who  had  seen  the  Volunteers  taking  aim, 
shouted  a  warning,  and  the  English  soldiers  dropped  on  the 
floor  of  the  car.    Whether  the  volley  had  any  effect,  be- 


304    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


yond  the  shattering  of  the  glass,  was  not  known  to  the 
Republicans. 

It  was  just  after  this  incident  that  the  Countess  Markie- 
vicz,  with  her  boys  of  the  Fianna  na  Eirgann,  arrived,  com- 
ing to  the  Green  through  William  Street  and  South  King 
Street.  The  Countess  had  already  been  the  heroine  of  a 
daring  exploit  earlier  in  the  day,  which  will  be  dealt  with  in 
another  chapter,  and  she  had  now  come  to  take  up  her  quar- 
ters in  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  to  which  she  and  the 
Fianna  had  been  assigned.  The  fame  of  her  exploit  at  the 
Castle  had  already  reached  the  ears  of  the  Volunteers,  and 
she  and  her  company  were  greeted  with  cheers  as  they 
marched  along  the  west  side  of  the  Green,  their  green,  white, 
and  orange  banner  flying  above  them. 

The  defense  of  York  Street  was  now  intrusted  to  the  Coun- 
tess, and  she  and  her  Fianna  lost  no  time  in  putting  the 
College  in  fit  state  to  withstand  a  siege.  The  houses  on 
either  side  of  Mereer  Street  and  York  Street  were  also  occu- 
pied by  this  time,  and  this  entrance  to  the  Green  was  thus 
well  protected,  more  particularly  owing  to  the  barricade  which 
had  been  erected  at  the  end  of  York  Street  and  Aungier  Street, 
and  formed  the  first  line  of  defense  in  this  area. 

Similar  precautions  were  being  taken  at  the  other  points 
around  the  Green.  A  barricade  was  thrown  up  in  Dawson 
Street  close  to  the  Mansion  House,  but  that  building,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  stood  too  far  back  to  be  of  advantage,  was 
occupied.  The  barricade  was  placed  just  above  it,  and  was 
also  a  first  line  defense.  A  similar  defense  was  erected  in 
Kildare  Street,  a  little  below  the  line  of  the  Shelborne  Hotel. 

Another  very  important  position  that  may  be  included  in 
this  area  of  operations  was  Jacob's  Biscuit  Factory,  situated 
at  the  corner  of  Bishop's  Street  and  Whitefriars  Street.  This 
corner  faced  directly  on  Aungier  Street,  where  the  latter  ran 
between  York  Street  and  Cuffe  Street.  The  position  was  not 
an  easy  one  to  hold,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  was  open  to 
attack  on  three  sides.  On  the  other  hand  the  nature  of  the 
goods  in  the  factory  rendered  it  practically  self-supporting 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  305 


so  far  as  food  was  concerned,  and  the  hundreds  of  bags  of 
flour  made  magnificent  barricades  for  all  of  the  windows. 
Major  John  McBride  was  in  command  in  the  factory,  which 
was  included  in  the  area  under  the  command  of  Command- 
ant MacDonagh.  'The  factory  was  the  furthest  western  point 
held  on  the  south  side  of  the  city,  with  the  exception  of  the 
South  Dublin  Union,  which  was  situated  beyond  the  City 
Basin  Dock. 

Only  a  short  distance  south  along  Harcourt  Street  is  Har- 
court  Street  Station,  and  this  was  also  seized  by  the  Repub- 
licans early  on  Monday,  as  part  of  the  Stephen's  Green  area. 
The  importance  of  this  position  can  scarcely  be  over-esti- 
mated. The  station  itself  was  a  position  of  considerable 
strength,  but  weakened  owing  to  the  command  which  artil- 
lery had  over  it  on  two  sides.  Owing  to  the  other  positions 
held  to  the  north  of  the  station,  there  was  a  clear  line  of  re- 
treat should  this  become  necessary. 

Further  to  the  south,  and  a  little  to  the  west,  was  the  Por- 
tobello  Bridge  over  the  Grand  Canal.  Lying  a  little  distance 
from  the  bridge  and  in  a  southwesterly  direction  were  the 
Portobello  Barracks,  occupied  by  several  companies  of  the 
military.  The  holding  of  the  canal  bridge  at  this  point  pre- 
vented the  enemy  crossing  the  canal.  A  little  further  west 
was  the  Clanbrassil  Street  Bridge.  Here  another  section  of 
the  Volunteers  was  on  guard,  thus  pinning  the  military  to 
the  south  side  of  the  canal  and  cutting  them  off  from  the  rest 
of  Dublin,  unless  at  the  cost  of  capturing  positions  that  were 
well  held  even  by  a  mere  handful  of  men.  These  two  posi- 
tions completed  the  southern  ring  of  defenses  in  this  area, 
and  both  were  under  the  command  of  Commandant  Mallin. 

By  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  all  of  the  positions  men- 
tioned were  held  by  the  Republicans,  whose  plans  had,  up  to 
this  point,  worked  with  perfect  smoothness. 


CHAPTER  XLVII 


The  Attack  on  the  Castle 

ONE  of  the  most  prominent  buildings  on  the  south 
side  of  Dublin  was  Dublin  Castle,  situated  at  the 
western  end  of  Dame  Street  on  the  eminence  known 
as  Cork  Hill.  At  one  time  a  little  stream,  known  as  the 
River  Poddle,  flowed  down  the  hill  at  this  point,  and  it  was 
across  this  that  King  John  of  England  had  erected  a  four- 
towered  castle  as  a  protection  for  the  people  of  the  Pale, 
and  as  a  stronghold  for  his  Government  in  Ireland.  While 
but  one  of  these  towers  remained  and  a  number  of  more 
modern  buildings  had  been  added,  the  system  that  had  op- 
pressed Ereland  in  the  days  of  King  John  had  altered  little 
in  duplicity  and  tyranny  with  the  passing  of  the  centuries. 

The  Castle  was  always  well  garrisoned.  In  the  lower  quad- 
rangle  went  situated  the  barracks  of  the  Dublin  Metropolitan 
Police,  and  there  were,  in  addition,  several  companies  of 
British  soldiers  quartered  in  the  various  buildings.  On  the 
morning  of  Easter  Monday  a  large  force  was  on  duty,  wait- 
ing for  the  arrival  of  other  soldiers  from  the  Curragh  to  begin 
the  programme  planned  by  representatives  of  the  Government. 

Alongside  the  Castle,  but  standing  out  from  it  and  facing 
on  Parliament  Street,  was  the  City  Hall,  erected  originally  as 
the  Royal  Exchange  in  1769,  but  adapted  to  municipal  pur- 
poses in  1862.  Across  the  street,  on  the  corner  of  Parliament 
Street  and  Dame  Street  were  the  offices  of  The  Daily  Express 
and  The  Evening  Mail,  two  English  Tory  newspapers  owned 
and  controlled  by  Lord  Iveagh.  It  is  not  without  interest  to 
recall  that,  on  the  Friday  before  the  Rising,  The  Daily  Ex- 
press, in  the  course  of  a  bitter  editorial  article,  called  on  the 
Government  to  accomplish  the  "speedy  and  happy  dispatch 
of  the  National  leaders." 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  307 


A  little  before  noon  on  Easter  Monday  morning  the  Coun- 
tess Markievicz  marched  with  her  boys  of  the  Fianna  na 
Eireann  up  to  the  outer  gate  of  the  Castle,  facing  Parliament 
Street.  The  sentry  on  duty,  a  man  named  Brien,  noticed  the 
parade  and  seemed  interested. 

When  the  Countess,  leading  the  Fianna,  led  the  way  di- 
rectly to  the  gateway  of  the  Castle,  the  sentry,  suddenly 
assuming  a  militant  attitude,  brought  his  rifle  across  his  hip 
and  faced  the  invaders.  The  Countess  told  him  to  get  on  one 
side,  that  war  had  been  declared,  and  that  he  would  be  shot 
if  he  resisted.  At  this  he  began  to  use  foul  language,  and  put 
his  weapon  to  the  breast  of  the  Countess.  Without  a  second's 
hesitation,  or  moving  an  inch  from  her  perilous  position,  the 
Countess  fired  her  revolver  point  blank  into  the  body  of  the 
sentry.    He  fell  where  he  stood,  killed  instantly. 

With  a  cheer,  the  others  followed  their  intrepid  leader  into 
the  quadrangle.  The  sound  of  the  shot  brought  out  a  score 
or  so  of  the  military,  who,  seeing  that  an  attack  was  in  prog- 
ress, retreated  into  the  barracks  of  the  police  and  to  the 
armory.  The  barracks  was  carried  on  the  run  by  the  Fianna, 
before  those  inside  had  time  to  close  the  doors,  and  a  number 
of  prisoners  made,  those  inside  preferring  to  surrender  rather 
than  fight.  Immediately  after  a  fusillade  of  shots  burst  from 
the  armory,  and  several  of  the  Fianna,  who  were  still  in  the 
open,  dropped  to  the  ground.  A  rapid  exchange  of  shots  then 
took  place  between  the  Fianna  in  the  barracks  and  the  military 
in  the  armory.  This  lasted  for  some  minutes,  when  it  was  de- 
cided to  storm  the  armory  and  gain  possession  of  it,  thus  making 
the  capture  of  the  entire  Castle  a  comparatively  easy  matter. 

A  slight  lull  in  the  firing  from  the  armory  gave  the  desired 
chance.  One  of  the  Fianna  made  a  dash  across  the  yard  and, 
putting  his  revolver  against  the  lock  of  the  armory  door, 
blew  it  to  pieces.  This  was  the  signal  for  a  general  attack, 
and,  with  a  cheer,  the  boys,  led  by  the  Countess  in  person, 
charged  for  the  broken  door.  A  scattering  volley  met  the 
charge,  but  the  shooting  was  bad,  and  resulted  only  in  two 
of  the  attackers  sustaining  slight  wounds. 


308   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


But,  at  the  moment  that  the  charge  was  made,  there  was 
a  clatter  of  horses'  hoofs  in  the  quadrangle,  and  the  Lancers 
who  had  run  away  from  O'Connell  Street  appeared,  covered 
with  foam,  dashing  through  the  gate  of  the  Castle.  This 
sudden  attack  in  the  rear  discomfited  the  rebels,  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  rebels  came  as  a  shock  to  the  Lancers.  That 
they  would  again  have  turned  tail  and  fled  is  very  possible, 
but  their  speed  carried  them  on  and,  as  they  dashed  towards 
the  Fianna,  the  latter  fell  to  either  side  and  allowed  the 
horsemen  to  go  past.  The  Countess  realized  that  her  little 
force  was  not  able  to  cope  with  the  situation,  and,  not  know- 
ing that  other  reinforcements  might  also  be  coming  up  behind, 
she  ordered  the  Fianna  to  fall  back  towards  the  gateway. 
Keeping  up  a  running  fire,  they  made  their  retreat  towards 
the  entrance. 

While  the  editor  of  The  Mail,  standing  near  his  window, 
was  working  himself  into  a  perspiration  over  these  events, 
most  of  which  he  could  only  guess  at,  he  was  further  amazed 
to  see  another  force  of  Irishmen  advancing  in  the  direction  of 
the  Castle.  Hearing  the  firing,  they  came  along  at  a  run,  and 
arrived  on  the  scene  just  as  the  Countess  succeeded  in  making 
her  retreat.  Seeing  what  was  happening,  Sean  Connolly,  who 
led  the  newcomers,  commanded  his  men  to  charge  into  the 
Castle.  This  again  turned  the  tide  of  war,  and  the  Lancers 
turned  at  the  arrival  of  the  rebel  reinforcements  and  dashed 
out  of  the  Castle  through  the  Ship  Street  entrance.  There 
they  vanish  from  the  history  of  the  Rebellion. 

The  quadrangle  was  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
and  the  wounded,  most  of  these  being  Britishers,  including 
some  of  the  Lancers.  The  barracks  was  again  occupied,  and 
a  fire  kept  up  on  the  armory  that  made  the  appearance  at  the 
windows  of  any  of  the  British  dangerous.  At  the  same  time 
a  number  of  the  Irish  had  established  themselves  in  the  upper 
quadrangle,  so  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  armory,  the 
Castle  was  virtually  in  the  possession  of  the  rebels. 

Seeing  that  this  was  the  case,  Sean  Connolly  returned  to 
the  Parliament  Street  entrance  of  the  castle  and  led  his  men 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  309 


into  the  City  Hall.  As  this  building  was  vacant  at  the  time, 
the  occupation  of  it  was  merely  a  matter  of  walking  in  and 
taking  possession.  While  this  was  in  progress,  a  number  of 
the  Republicans  began  the  occupation  of  the  other  buildings 
which  were  to  constitute  this  line  of  the  defenses.  The  Coun- 
tess meanwhile  marched  with  her  Fianna  in  the  direction  of 
Stephen's  Green,  and  took  up  her  quarters  at  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons. 

The  Republicans  took  over  and  occupied  the  offices  of  The 
Evening  Mail,  and  the  Empire  Theater,  situated  at  the  corner 
of  Dame  Street  and  Theater  Street.  They  took  up  positions 
on  the  balcony  of  the  Theater,  facing  Dame  Street,  and  also 
in  the  rear,  where  they  were  able  to  guard  against  a  surprise 
from  Essex  Street.  It  was  while  they  were  making  these 
arrangements  that  a  disaster  took  place  at  the  City  Hall. 

After  entering  the  City  Hall  the  Volunteers  proceeded  to 
the  roof,  from  which  point  they  could  bring  a  further  line 
of  fire  on  the  remaining  defenders  of  the  Castle,  and  com- 
mand Dame  Street  and  Lord  Edward  Street.  One  of  the  first 
to  appear  on  the  roof  was  the  leader,  Sean  Connolly.  He 
carried  in  his  arms  the  green,  white,  and  orange  tricolor  of 
the  Republic,  and  went  directly  to  the  flagstaff,  where  the 
municipal  flag  was  flying.  This  he  pulled  down  and  ran  up 
the  Republican  flag  in  its  stead.  As  he  was  tying  the  last 
knot,  a  sudden  volley  rang  out  from  the  upper  quadrangle 
of  the  Castle,  where  some  of  the  defenders  were  still  holding 
their  own,  and  Sean  was  seen  to  fall  flat  on  his  face  where  he 
had  been  standing.    He  had  been  killed  almost  instantly. 

Sean  Connolly  was  a  Captain  in  the  Citizen  Army,  a  close 
friend  of  the  Countess  Markievicz,  a  splendid  elocutionist,  and 
closely  connected  with  the  Abbey  Theater  Company  and  the 
National  Players.  He  met  the  death  that  he  himself  would 
have  chosen,  falling  under  the  flag  of  his  united  Ireland, 
attired  in  the  uniform  of  one  of  her  national  soldiers. 

His  place  was  immediately  taken  by  John  O'Reilly,  who 
was  second  in  command  under  Connolly.  Standing  six  feet 
and  six  inches  in  his  socks,  O'Reilly  was  a  man  of  command- 


310   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


ing  presence  and  a  clever  leader.  He  had  the  body  of  his 
captain  taken  down  into  the  Council  Chamber  of  the  City 
Hall,  and  then  set  to  work  to  carry  out  the  plans  that  had 
been  made  for  the  defense  of  the  building.  The  fall  of  the 
leader  in  no  way  interfered  with  the  execution  of  the  work 
that  was  to  be  done.  It  merely  made  his  men  the  more  de- 
termined that  he  would  not  die  unavenged. 

Meanwhile,  the  Republicans  had  been  busy  erecting  other 
barricades  along  the  tops  of  the  various  small  streets  that  led 
from  the  direction  of  the  river  into  Dame  Street.  Essex 
Quay  and  Wellington  Quay  were  occupied,  and  a  barricade 
thrown  across  the  foot  of  Parliament  Street  so  as  to  command 
Grattan  Bridge.  A  number  of  buildings  in  Fleet  Street  were 
also  occupied,  but  these  were  held  only  temporarily,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  defenses  in  the  near-by  sections  were  so 
perfect,  and  men  were  wanted  elsewhere. 

The  attack  made  on  the  old  Houses  of  Parliament  was  not 
vigorously  pressed,  probably  because  the  Republicans  did  not 
want  to  expose  that  historic  edifice  to  the  risk  of  a  bombard- 
ment. The  Republicans  did,  however,  drive  the  English  sen- 
tries on  duty  there  into  the  building,  and,  as  they  did  so, 
they  were  greeted  by  a  volley  of  shots  from  the  gateway  of 
Trinity  College,  which  faces  directly  up  Dame  Street  and 
commands  the  entrances  to  the  Bank  (as  the  Parliament 
Houses  had  become). 

Early  in  the  course  of  the  war,  Trinity  College,  a  bulwark 
of  the  English  in  Ireland,  had  established  an  Officers'  Training 
Corps,  and  it  was  this  force  that  had  fired  on  the  rebels.  They 
had  discovered  what  was  being  done  in  the  other  parts  of  the 
city,  and  had  opened  their  gates  to  a  number  of  scared  British 
soldiers  who  were  afraid  to  venture  to  return  to  their  respec- 
tive barracks  or  proceed  to  the  Castle.  These  men  assisted 
the  Training  Corps  in  the  defense  of  the  Bank  and  of  the 
College.  Their  volley  had  the  effect  of  driving  the  rebels  up 
Dame  Street,  it  being  realized  that  any  attempt  to  carry  the 
College  by  a  frontal  attack  of  infantry  on  the  huge  iron  gates 
would  be  little  short  of  suicide.    Furthermore,  they  were  ac- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  311 


complishing  all  that  they  desired  by  keeping  the  Officers' 
Training  Corps  confined  to  the  College  along  with  the  British 
soldiers  who  had  taken  refuge  there. 

This  was  the  situation  of  affairs  on  the  south  side  of  the 
city,  so  far  as  the  City  Hall  area  was  concerned,  at  four 
o'clock  on  Monday  afternoon.  The  Castle  was  practically  in 
the  hands  of  the  Irish,  who  also  held  a  large  area  adjoining 
it  and  running  down  to  the  quays. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 


At  Boland's  Mills 

THE  chain  of  defenses  in  Ringsend,  or  the  southeastern 
district  of  the  city,  consisted  of  six  main  points,  under 
the  command  of  Commandant  Edward  de  Valera,  a 
man  whose  courage  and  determination  earned  for  him  one  of 
the  highest  places  in  the  ranks  of  the  men  who  led  the  Repub- 
lican Army  during  Easter  Week.  De  Valera  was  born  in 
New  York  City,  his  mother  being  Irish  and  his  father  a 
Spaniard.  He  went  to  Ireland  to  complete  his  education,  and 
had  a  brilliant  career,  graduating  from  Blackrock  College  in 
1904.  He  later  became  Professor  of  Science  at  Maynooth  and 
of  Higher  Mathematics  at  Carysgort  Normal  College  in 
Dublin. 

Taking  a  keen  interest  in  literature  and  art,  he  soon  be- 
came friendly  with  Thomas  MacDonagh  and  Padraic  Pearse. 
A  fluent  speaker  of  Gaelic,  he  was  a  thorough  patriot,  and  his 
ardent  love  for  Ireland  was  manifested  on  more  than  one 
occasion  in  the  perilous  and  dangerous  period  prior  to  the 
insurrection.  Although  an  American  citizen,  he  was  trans- 
parently sincere  and  disinterested  in  his  love  for  his  mother's 
native  land,  and,  when  he  joined  the  Volunteers,  he  threw 
himself  into  the  work  with  so  much  fervor  that  he  soon  rose 
to  a  position  of  responsibility.  A  tall,  dark  man,  with  many 
traits  of  his  father  in  his  appearance  and  character,  he  was 
very  muscular  and  seemingly  did  not  know  the  meaning  of 
fear. 

The  district  to  which  De  Valera  had  been  assigned  by  Presi- 
dent Pearse  was  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  area  of 
operations.  His  main  duty  was  to  keep  the  soldiers  in  the 
Beggarsbush  Barracks  so  well  occupied  that  they  would  be 
unable  to  do  more  than  defend  themselves.    The  position 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  313 


approached  that  of  the  Castle  area  at  Westland  Row  Station, 
which  is  situated  only  a  block  away  from  the  far  end  of  the 
grounds  of  Trinity  College.  This  station  was  the  terminal 
of  the  Dublin,  Wicklow,  and  Wexford  Railway.  The  entire 
line  of  the  railroad  from  the  station  south  to  the  point  where 
it  crossed  Lansdowne  Road  was  also  in  De  Valera's  hands, 
and  was  patrolled  constantly  by  his  men  during  the  week  of 
the  Rebellion.  To  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  fact, 
it  must  be  mentioned  that  from  the  corner  of  South  Lots 
Road  the  railroad  ran  almost  alongside  and  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  Beggarsbush  Barracks,  Lansdowne  Road  being 
some  distance  in  the  rear  of  the  buildings.  The  possessions 
of  the  railroad,  therefore,  besides  commanding  that  district 
between  Great  Brunswick  Street  and  Merrion  Square,  allowed 
the  Volunteers  to  dominate  one  side  and  the  rear  of  the  bar- 
racks. It  likewise  rendered  the  Grand  Canal  Docks  at  this 
point,  the  Ringsend  Gasworks,  and  the  power  house  prac- 
tically untenable  for  the  enemy,  thus  depriving  them  of  three 
important  positions. 

Great  Brunswick  Street  crosses  the  Grand  Canal  Basin  over 
a  bridge.  South  of  Great  Brunswick  street  is  Grand  Canal 
Street.  To  the  west  is  Clarence  Street  and  on  the  east  is  the 
Grand  Canal  Quay,  facing  on  the  water.  Diagonally  through 
this  block  runs  the  railroad  line,  and  in  the  portion  between 
the  line  and  Great  Brunswick  Street,  facing  on  the  canal 
basin,  were  situated  Boland's  Mills.  Built  of  stone  and  sur- 
rounded by  high  walls,  and  containing  a  plentiful  supply  of 
flour,  useful  both  for  barricades  and  for  food,  a  better  im- 
provised fort  would  have  been  very  difficult  to  find.  Touch- 
ing, as  it  did,  on  the  railroad,  and  with  one  side  also  protected 
by  the  canal  basin,  it  was  splendidly  situated.  It  was  here 
that  De  Valera  established  his  headquarters  and  personally 
directed  the  operations.  The  railroad  line,  with  its  stone  wall 
protection,  practically  formed  one  long  line  of  trenches,  pro- 
tecting his  northern  flank  from  the  Mills  to  Westland  Row 
Station. 

The  next  point  of  his  defenses  approached  Stephen's  Green 


314   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


on  the  west.  This  was  at  the  corner  of  Lower  Mount  Street 
and  Warrington  Place,  where  a  detachment  of  his  men  occu- 
pied Clanwilliam  House,  a  strong  building  that  had  been 
erected  when  houses  were  made  only  of  stone.  From  here 
the  rebels  dominated  Percy  Place  and  Herbert  Place.  A 
block  furlher  down  and  almost  alongside  the  barracks  the 
rebels  held  the  corner  of  Northumberland  Road  and  Hadding- 
ton Road,  and,  still  another  block  further  down  and  in  the 
rear  of  the  Barracks,  they  held  the  junction  of  Northumber- 
land Road,  Pembroke  Road,  and  Lansdowne  Road.  They 
were  thus  able  to  command  every  approach  to  the  Barracks. 
Still  further  to  the  south  they  also  held  the  corner  of  Pem- 
broke Road  and  Shelborne  Road  alongside  the  River  Dodder. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  entire  area  was  well  defended, 
and  it  is  a  matter  for  surprise  when  it  is  known  that  De  Valera 
had  but  little  more  than  one  hundred  men  for  the  entire  dis- 
trict. The  manner  in  which  he  placed  them,  and  the  advan- 
tage they  took  of  every  opportunity  afforded  for  protecting 
themselves,  were  the  secret  of  his  success.  De  Valera  proved 
himself  to  be  a  commander  of  whom  any  army  and  any  coun- 
try might  be  proud. 

Leaving  his  quarters  shortly  before  noon  on  Easter  Mon- 
day, De  Valera  and  his  men  marched  direct  to  Westland  Row 
Station.  Here  all  was  bustle  and  confusion,  owing  to  the 
influx  of  the  holiday  crowds.  A  train  load  of  visitors  from 
England  had  just  arrived  on  the  boat  train,  and  were  being 
driven  away  in  outside  cars  and  taxis  to  various  parts  of  the 
city.  Some  little  interest  was  manifested  when  the  Volun- 
teers marched  up  the  carriage  way  to  the  upper  level  of  the 
station,  the  English  visitors  being  quite  interested  at  seeing 
the  much-discussed  Irish  Volunteers.  When  these  same  Vol- 
unteers, however,  proceeded  to  clear  the  station  of  not  only 
the  officials  but  the  remaining  visitors  also,  their  interest  be- 
came much  keener  and  far  less  impersonal.  To  all  protests 
and  inquiries  the  Volunteers  replied  that  a  Republic  had  been 
proclaimed,  and  that  the  station  was  being  held,  and  would 
probably  be  attacked  by  the  British.   The  obvious  determina- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  315 


tion  of  the  Volunteers  impressed  itself  on  the  officials  and 
visitors  alike,  and  they  lost  little  time  in  getting  away  from 
the  station. 

With  the  station  in  his  possession,  De  Valera  sent  forward 
a  detachment  of  men  along  the  railroad  line,  with  directions 
to  await  him  at  Boland's  Mills.  He  then  proceeded  to  the 
Mills  with  the  rest  of  his  men  by  road.  As  soon  as  they  had 
begun  the  work  of  establishing  themselves  there,  where  they 
met  with  no  opposition,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  mills  were 
closed  on  the  holiday,  he  personally  took  another  detachment 
to  the  house  at  the  corner  of  Lower  Mount  Street,  which  was 
also  placed  in  a  state  of  defense.  One  by  one  the  other  points 
were  similarly  occupied  by  the  Republicans. 

At  this  time  there  were  a  number  of  English  soldiers  on  the 
streets,  and,  while  these  were  watching  with  amazement  the 
occupation  of  Clanwilliam  House,  De  Valera  personally  told 
one  of  his  men  to  warn  them  that  a  state  of  war  existed  and 
that  actual  hostilities  would  be  begun  within  the  hour.  He 
took  this  action  owing  to  his  not  wishing  to  take  these  men 
prisoners,  and  also  because  he  had  no  intention  of  opening 
fire  until  he  knew  that  the  enemy  were  aware  of  his  intentions. 

Shortly  before  one  o'clock  the  Republican  flag  was  hoisted 
over  Boland's  Mills.  It  had  been  flying  but  a  few  seconds 
when  a  solitary  shot  rang  out  from  the  barracks,  quickly 
followed  by  a  number  of  others.  Regarding  this  as  an  act  of 
war,  the  patrols  on  the  railroad  replied,  and  some  of  the 
fiercest  fighting  of  the  Rebellion  began. 

This  exchange  of  courtesies  lasted  only  a  little  while.  The 
military  did  not  seem  to  be  in  any  hurry  to  rout  the  rebels 
out  of  their  strongholds,  and  it  was  not  until  late  in  the  even- 
ing that  the  first  sortie  from  the  beleaguered  barracks  was 
made.  The  sentries  on  the  railroad  flashed  a  signal  to  Bo- 
land's Mills  that  the  enemy  was  preparing  to  issue  in  strength 
from  the  entrance  leading  into  Northumberland  Road,  be- 
tween Haddington  Road  and  Pembroke  Road.  This  warning 
was,  in  turn,  flashed  to  the  men  in  the  threatened  districts, 
with  the  result  that  when  the  military  appeared  on  the  run 


316   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


they  were  met  by  a  terrible  cross  fire  from  both  corners,  shots 
also  being  fired  from  the  railroad.  A  dozen  or  more  of  the 
soliders  dropped,  and  the  rest,  evidently  unaware  till  then 
that  the  rebels  were  so  well  posted,  withdrew  for  the  time 
being. 

A  few  minutes  later  a  second  volley  from  the  railroad 
warned  the  Irish  that  another  attack  was  in  progress.  The 
military  this  time  had  come  out  into  Shelborne  Road  and,  in 
spite  of  the  fire  which  greeted  them  from  the  railroad,  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  into  Lansdowne  Road.  From  here  they 
charged  on  the  position  at  Pembroke  Road  and  Northumber- 
land Road,  but  the  volleys  that  met  them  again  drove  them 
back.  Determined,  however,  to  gain  a  position  outside  of  the 
barracks,  they  again  attacked,  this  time  making  their  way 
along  the  Shelborne  Road  to  the  Dodder,  where  they  attacked 
the  section  at  that  point,  while  their  comrades  also  kept  up 
a  fire  on  the  position  at  the  Pembroke  Road. 

Throwing  themselves  flat  on  the  streets,  the  military  began 
a  general  engagement  against  these  two  points.  Little  by 
little  they  were  able  to  creep  closer  to  the  Clyde  Road  posi- 
tion, and  after  the  engagement  had  been  in  progress  for  over 
half  an  hour,  the  rebels  at  this  point  were  forced  to  retire, 
owing  to  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  supplies  of  ammunition 
from  the  men  at  the  other  corner,  who  were  also  engaged  with 
the  military.  As  the  Clyde  Road  position  was  merely  an 
advanced  line,  its  loss  was  not  of  importance,  and  the  men 
retired  up  Elgin  Road  and  then  through  Raglan  Road  into 
Pembroke  Road,  where  they  were  able  to  join  hands  with 
their  comrades. 

The  British,  however,  were  apparently  of  the  opinion  that 
they  had  gained  an  important  victory,  and  they  thereupon 
dashed  forward  to  continue  their  success.  But  they  were 
met  with  so  withering  a  fire  from  the  men  in  the  reinforced 
position  at  Pembroke  and  Northumberland  Roads  that  they 
fled  back  after  suffering  heavy  losses.  So  severe  was  the 
rebuff  that  the  Irish  might  possibly  have  been  able  to  retake 
their  advanced  position,  but  they  were  content  to  hold  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  317 


enemy  in  check  from  their  stronger  position.  A  half-hearted 
attack  was  made  by  the  British  a  little  later,  but  this  was 
also  met  with  determined  opposition,  and  the  engagement 
became  a  contest  between  snipers.  Thus  the  night  passed  in 
this  sector  of  the  operations. 

Away  up  beyond  the  Castle  and  the  Liberties  and  close  to 
Kilmainham,  was  situated  the  South  Dublin  Union  —  an  ex- 
tensive group  of  buildings,  bounded  on  the  south  by  the 
Grand  Canal,  on  the  west  by  Row  Road,  on  the  north  by 
James  Street,  and  on  the  east  by  the  City  Basin  connecting 
with  the  canal.  On  the  northeast,  touching  that  side  of  the 
City  Basin,  were  some  of  the  buildings  of  Guinness's  Brewery. 
It  was  this  position  that  the  Volunteers,  under  the  command 
of  Eamonn  Ceannt,  occupied  shortly  after  noon  on  Monday. 
It  was  the  most  westerly  position  occupied  by  the  Republican 
Army  in  Dublin,  and,  unlike  the  other  positions  that  have 
been  described,  was  practically  isolated,  not  being  supported 
by  a  chain  of  other  positions  in  the  vicinity.  On  this  account 
the  position  was  decidedly  weaker  than  any  of  the  others,  and 
was  also  rendered  less  easy  to  hold  owing  to  the  fact  that 
there  were  a  large  number  of  aged  and  more  or  less  infirm 
inmates  in  the  buildings,  which  prevented  the  rebels  taking 
possession  of  the  latter,  as  they  had  no  desire  to  render  them 
liable  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy.  As  will  later  be  seen,  that 
enemy  was  actuated  by  no  such  scruples. 

It  was  at  this  point  that  one  of  the  earliest  engagements 
took  place  between  the  British  and  the  Irish.  According  to 
instructions  received  the  previous  day,  the  third  Royal  Irish 
Regiment  was  on  its  way  east  to  report  for  duty  at  the  Castle, 
when  information  was  received  by  a  motorcyclist  messenger 
that  the  city  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish,  and  that  they 
were  wanted  immediately.  At  that  time  they  were  going  into 
the  city  along  Kilmainham  Road  into  James  Street,  and  the 
officers  in  charge  immediately  ordered  the  men  to  increase  their 
pace.  It  may  be  well  to  mention,  in  passing,  that  this  regi- 
ment, like  many  others  with  similar  titles,  was  composed  mainly 
of  Britishers,  the  only  thing  Irish  about  it  being  the  name. 


318   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Eamonn  Ceannt,  in  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  troops 
from  Kilmainham,  had  thrown  a  patrol  across  Row  Road, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  his  scouts  reported  that  a  very 
large  body  of  the  British  was  advancing  at  a  rapid  pace. 
The  rebels  deployed  on  each  side  of  the  road  and  awaited 
the  arrival  of  the  enemy.  But  the  enemy,  in  this  case,  was 
a  trifle  more  cautious  than  the  soldiers  in  Beggarsbush  Bar- 
racks, and  soon  an  advance  guard  engagement  was  being 
fought  between  the  opposing  forces. 

An  entire  regiment  of  the  enemy  being  engaged,  it  was 
easily  possible  for  the  British  to  hold  the  road  and  at  the 
same  time  to  send  forces  into  Row  Lane,  a  little  to  the  north 
of  that  point  and  with  an  exit  below  the  point  defended  by 
the  Irish.  This  attempt  to  take  them  in  the  flank  was  vigor- 
ously resisted  by  the  rebels,  who  held  their  positions  for  over 
an  hour  before  being  driven  to  fall  back  by  sheer  weight  of 
numbers.  They  then  retreated  in  good  order  on  their  base, 
the  Union  buildings,  and  were  followed  step  by  step  by  the 
British.  Once  close  to  their  base,  however,  they  were  able 
to  offer  a  more  stubborn  resistance  and  eventually  halted  the 
advance.  In  the  fighting  there  had  been  severe  losses  on  the 
side  of  the  British,  which  was  but  to  be  expected  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  Volunteers  were  constantly  on  the  defensive 
and  better  able  to  take  advantage  of  all  the  cover  that  of- 
fered. They  were  able  also  to  hold  their  own  during  the  rest 
of  the  day,  and,  owing  to  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  the 
officer  commanding  the  regiment  decided  that  he  would  not 
be  able  to  advance  until  he  had  subdued  the  rebels  in  this 
quarter.  So  that  Commandant  Ceannt  succeeded  in  at  least 
holding  for  the  time  being  one  regiment  from  the  attack  on 
the  central  positions  held  by  the  other  leaders. 

The  foregoing  chapters  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  Volunteers  established  themselves 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  city.  Even  the  brief  details  given 
will  have  convinced  the  reader  that  the  plans  were  remarkably 
thorough.  By  Easter  Monday  evening  they  had  taken  pos- 
session of  a  line  of  defenses  which  stretched  from  the  canal 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  319 


to  the  Castle,  and  from  the  Castle  to  Ringsend.  In  addition 
they  held  many  other  important  positions,  practically  all  of 
which  have  been  mentioned. 

It  is  now  time  to  turn  to  the  northern  side  and  see  what 
was  taking  place  there. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 
The  Post  Office  Area 

SOME  details  have  been  already  given  regarding  the  posi- 
tion occupied  by  the  Republicans  in  the  General  Post 
Office  in  O'Connell  Street.  The  Post  Office  was  made 
the  headquarters  of  the  Irish.  Here  the  President  and  the 
Commandant  of  the  Dublin  troops  were  quartered  along  with 
a  number  of  their  staff  officers.  Here  they  received  their  re- 
ports from  all  the  other  sections  of  the  city  that  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  insurgents,  and  it  was  but  natural  that  this 
point  should  be  the  center  of  a  chain  of  other  positions  so 
that  it  might  be  the  more  efficiently  guarded. 

O'Connell  Street,  called  by  the  English  Sackville  Street, 
has  long  been  reputed  one  of  the  finest  streets  in  Europe. 
It  is  remarkable  for  its  breadth,  being  more  than  twice  as 
broad  as  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.  It  is,  however, 
only  about  twenty  city  blocks  in  length,  running  from  the 
River  Liffey  to  the  Rotunda,  which  stands  at  the  corner  of 
Parnell  Street  (formerly  Great  Britain  Street)  and  Cavendish 
Row.  Parnell  Street  runs  across  the  top  of  O'Connell  Street 
east  and  west,  forming  the  boundary  between  O'Connell 
Street  and  Cavendish  Row. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  Post  Office  is  Prince's  Street,  a 
small  narrow  thoroughfare  that  extends  only  a  few  yards 
before  degenerating  into  a  mere  alley.  The  Metropole  Hotel 
stood  at  the  corner  facing  O'Connell  Street,  and  just  below 
it  was  the  office  of  The  Freeman  s  Journal,  Redmond's  official 
newspaper.  At  the  next  corner,  a  little  further  up,  is  Middle 
Abbey  Street,  the  journalistic  Mecca  of  the  city.  Abbey 
Street  extends  west  from  O'Connell  Street,  and  on  the  other 
side,  extending  east,  is  Lower  Abbey  Street.  A  block  further 
south  the  street  comes  to  an  end  at  O'Connell  Bridge,  formerly 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


S21 


called  Carlisle  Bridge.  The  statue  of  O'Connell,  at  the  end 
of  the  street  and  facing  south  over  the  bridge,  is  one  of  the 
finest  pieces  of  sculpture  in  the  city.  Extending  west  from 
the  bridge  is  Bachelor's  Walk,  with  which  the  reader  is 
already  acquainted.  Above  Bachelor's  Walk,  running  along- 
side the  river,  is  Ormond  Quay,  and  then  King's  Inn  Quay, 
on  which  face  the  Four  Courts.  East  from  the  Bridge  is 
Eden  Quay,  running  to  Beresford  Place;  then  Custom  House 
Quay,  on  which  faces  the  Custom  House,  and  below  this  the 
North  Wall,  running  the  rest  of  the  way  to  the  sea.  Below 
O'Connell  Bridge,  the  river  is  spanned  by  the  Butt  Bridge, 
running  into  Beresford  Place,  and  the  huge  and  unsightly 
railroad  loop  bridge  carrying  the  line  from  Tara  Street  Station, 
which  is  just  below  WestJand  Row,  north  over  the  river  to 
Amiens  Street  Station,  where  connection  is  made  with  the 
Great  Northern  Railway,  for  the  north  of  Ireland.  Above 
O'Connell  Bridge  may  be  seen  the  Metal  Bridge,  connecting 
with  Liffey  Street,  which  runs  into  Middle  Abbey  Street; 
Grattan  Bridge,  connecting  Capel  Street  and  Parliament 
Street;  Richmond  Bridge,  just  east  of  the  Four  Courts; 
Whitworth  Bridge,  just  west  of  the  Four  Courts;  Queen's 
Bridge,  Barrack  Bridge,  and  King's  Bridge,  which  is  close  to 
the  Phoenix  Park  and  just  below  the  Kingsbridge  Railway 
Station. 

The  Post  Office  Area  extended  from  the  river  to  Parnell 
Street  in  the  north,  to  Beresford  Place  in  the  east,  and  to 
Capel  Street  in  the  west,  where  it  adjoined  the  Four  Courts 
area.  Liberty  Hall,  being  in  Beresford  Place,  opposite  the 
Custom  House,  was  in  this  area,  and  Amiens  Street  Station 
was  also  included.  This  sector  comprised  the  very  heart  of 
the  city.  Beresford  Place  was  one  of  the  largest  open  spaces, 
not  a  park,  to  be  found  in  the  city.  Liberty  Hall,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Irish  Transport  and  General  Workers'  Union, 
was  situated  in  an  old  building  just  around  the  corner  from 
Eden  Quay.  Several  other  buildings  intervened  between 
Liberty  Hall  and  Lower  Abbey  Street. 

The  Volunteers  took  possession,  on  Monday  morning,  of 


322   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  building  over  Hopkins'  jewelry  store  at  the  corner  of 
O'Connell  Street  and  Eden  Quay.  At  the  same  time  they 
occupied  Kelly's  Fort,  on  the  opposite  corner  of  O'Connell 
Street  and  Bachelor's  Walk.  This  latter  place  was  a  three- 
storied  building  given  over  to  an  extensive  trade  in  rifles, 
ammunition,  pistols,  and  similar  goods,  for  sporting  and 
military  use.  The  two  positions  enabled  the  Republicans  to 
command  the  approaches  to  O'Connell  Bridge  from  the 
south. 

Some  sixty  yards  below  the  corner  of  O'Connell  Street  in 
Middle  Abbey  Street  were  the  offices  of  The  Evening  Tele- 
graphy the  afternoon  edition  of  The  Freeman's  Journal.  These 
offices  extended  right  back  to  Prince's  Street,  where  the  front 
door  was  labeled  with  the  name  of  The  Freeman's  Journal. 
At  almost  the  same  time  when  the  Republicans  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Post  Office,  another  section  of  Volunteers  marched 
into  the  office  of  The  Freeman's  Journal.  As  they  entered 
the  dingy  archway,  and  passed  on  into  the  dark  and  dirty 
interior,  the  occupants  ran  out  of  the  Telegraph  offices  in 
Middle  Abbey  Street. 

The  retreat  of  the  occupants  of  the  Freeman  office  was 
quickly  followed  by  the  Volunteers  taking  complete  possession 
of  the  building  right  through  to  Middle  Abbey  Street.  While 
that  portion  of  the  building  was  of  little  use  excepting  to 
prevent  a  possible  charge  on  the  entrances  to  the  Post  Office, 
the  Telegraph  office  in  Middle  Abbey  Street  was  certainly 
valuable,  and  the  long  narrow  building  presented  an  excellent 
line  of  retreat  should  such  be  required.  It  also  made  it 
possible  for  messengers  to  take  dispatches  into  the  Post 
Office  from  Middle  Abbey  Street. 

The  building  at  the  corner  of  Middle  Abbey  Street  and 
O'Connell  Street,  together  with  Eason's  Library,  was  also 
occupied  for  the  purpose  of  defense  against  an  attack  from 
the  bridge.  These  points,  together  with  the  points  occupied 
on  the  opposite  corner,  where  Lower  Abbey  Street  ran  into 
O'Connell  Street,  were  the  second  line  of  defense  to  the  Post 
Office.    Chief  among  the  points  occupied  at  this  corner  was 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  323 


the  Hibernian  Bank,  a  strong  stone  building  that  offered 
excellent  facilities  for  defense. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  erection  of  the  barricade 
at  the  corner  of  North  Earl  Street,  just  north  of  the  Post 
Office.  Another  of  these  obstacles  was  built  in  Talbot 
Street,  the  continuation  of  North  Earl  Street,  halfway  down 
to  Amiens  Street  Station.  A  barricade  was  also  erected  at 
the  junction  of  Henry  Street  and  Denmark  Street.  In  line 
with  this  was  another  barricade  at  the  corner  of  Middle 
Abbey  Street  and  Liffey  Street.  Another  first  line  defense 
was  set  up  at  the  corner  of  Mary  Street  and  Jervis  Street. 
A  guard  was  also  placed  on  the  Metal  Bridge  to  prevent  an 
attack  from  the  south  side.  Communication  was  thus  made 
with  the  rebels  in  the  Four  Courts  area. 

The  entire  length  of  O'Connell  Street  was  patroled  by  the 
Irish,  from  O'Connell  Bridge  to  the  Parnell  Monument,  but, 
owing  to  the  small  number  of  men  available,  it  was  not 
considered  practicable  to  hold  Parnell  Street,  as  had  been 
the  original  intention.  There  was  an  excellent  reason  why 
the  Irish  did  not  take  possession  of  the  Rotunda.  Next  to 
the  building  was  the  Rotunda  Hospital,  and  the  Irish,  with 
ready  sympathy,  did  not  wish  to  endanger  the  lives  of  the 
patients. 

Amiens  Street  Station,  situated  at  the  far  end  of  Talbot 
Street,  was  the  terminal  of  the  Great  Northern  Railroad. 
This  point  was  taken  by  the  insurgents  at  an  early  hour  on 
Monday.  The  station  is  built  on  an  eminence,  and  is  ap- 
proached by  an  inclined  carriage  way  on  the  south,  and  by 
steep  stone  stairways  on  the  west  facing  Talbot  Street.  The 
station  is  large  and  well  built  and  is  protected  by  a  stone  wall 
on  the  east.  Its  possession  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish 
the  terminal  for  all  of  the  trains  from  Belfast  and  the  north. 

On  taking  possession  of  the  station  and  ejecting  the  officials, 
the  Republicans  sent  out  patrols  along  the  railroad  line, 
which  for  some  distance  is  built  on  a  viaduct.  The  loop  line 
from  Tara  Street  Station  connects  with  the  main  line  just 
below  Seville  Place,  and  the  connecting  line  of  the  Midland 


324   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


and  Great  Western  Railway  cuts  a  short  distance  higher  up. 
Had  there  been  sufficient  men  to  hold  these  positions  and  at 
the  same  time  allow  the  moving  of  men  from  one  point  to 
another,  the  loop  line  from  Amiens  Street  to  Tara  Street 
would  have  formed  an  excellent  means  of  communication 
with  the  Boland's  Mills  area.  Owing,  however,  to  the  fact 
that  Tara  Street  Station  could  not  be  properly  occupied,  this 
means  of  communication  was  rendered  precarious.  In  this 
instance,  as  in  a  thousand  others,  the  fatal  countermanding 
order  of  Eoin  MacNeill  crippled  the  plan  of  campaign. 

Towards  evening,  owing  to  the  vigilance  of  the  sentries  on 
duty,  it  was  observed  that  a  detachment  of  cavalry  was 
attempting  to  make  its  way  from  the  North  Wall  towards 
the  northern  end  of  the  city.  It  was  noticed  that  they  were 
conveying  ammunition,  and  a  message  was  immediately  sent 
to  the  Post  Office  to  this  effect.  Connolly  dispatched  a 
company  of  men  to  intercept  the  British,  and  they  succeeded 
in  locating  them  and  holding  them  up  in  Charles  Street,  near 
the  Four  Courts.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  British  were 
superior  in  numbers,  they  preferred  to  park  their  ammunition 
and  allow  themselves  to  be  surrounded.  A  battle  ensued, 
without  either  side  making  a  charge.  It  was  discovered  that 
the  British  consisted  of  150  men  of  the  Sixth  Reserve  Cavalry 
Regiment,  in  charge  of  four  officers.  The  Republicans  con- 
sisted of  fewer  then  fifty  men,  but  they  occupied  every  possible 
point  about  the  British,  and  their  shooting  was  so  excellent 
that  the  enemy  did  not  dare  to  try  conclusions,  but  retreated, 
leaving  their  dead  and  ammunition  behind  them.  The 
shooting  of  the  Irish  continued  deadly,  and  the  ranks  of  the 
British  were  considerably  thinned  as  the  retreat  progressed. 
Owing  to  their  great  numerical  inferiority,  the  Irish  were 
unable  to  follow  up  their  advantage  fully.  They  had  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing,  however,  that,  early  in  the  engage- 
ment, the  officer  commanding  the  convoy  was  shot  dead. 
Owing  to  the  better  cover  they  had  selected,  the  Irish  loss 
was  out  of  all  proportion  to  that  of  the  enemy.  One  of  the 
first  to  fall  in  the  ranks  of  the  Irish  was  Patrick  Kavanagh, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  325 


a  Dublin  man  and  a  crack  shot.  He  was  sighting  his  rifle 
when  a  bullet  struck  him  right  between  the  eyes,  killing  him 
instantly.  Others  who  fell  during  the  opening  of  this  engage- 
ment were  James  McGuire,  of  Terenure,  William  MacDonald, 
of  Clontarf,  and  William  MacGuinness,  of  Cork,  who  had  been 
for  some  years  in  Dublin  and  was  one  of  the  most  ardent 
members  of  the  Volunteers. 

During  Monday  night  some  shots  were  exchanged  between 
the  men  on  guard  at  O'Connell  Bridge  and  some  of  the 
British  from  Trinity  College.  These  were  merely  sniping 
encounters,  however,  and  the  night  in  this  section  passed  in 
comparative  quiet.  Shortly  after  midnight  word  was  received 
at  Liberty  Hall  that  a  large  number  of  the  British  were 
advancing  along  the  North  Wall  towards  the  Custom  House. 
Preparations  were  immediately  made  to  receive  them,  and  a 
patrol  sent  out  to  hold  them  in  check. 


CHAPTER  L 


The  Four  Courts 

THERE  is  just  one  more  area  of  the  defenses  of 
Dublin  that  remains  to  be  considered.  This  is  the 
line  that  stretched  from  the  Four  Courts  along  Con- 
stitution Hill  to  the  Broadstone  Railway  Station,  and  thence 
along  Broadstone  Road  and  the  bank  of  the  Royal  Canal  to 
the  North  Circular  Road.  This  line  may  be  taken  to  repre- 
sent fairly  accurately  the  northwestern  line  of  trenches  set 
up  by  the  Republicans. 

The  Four  Courts  —  comprising  the  four  courts  of  Exchequer, 
Common  Pleas,  Chancery,  and  King's  Bench  —  are  a  square 
block  of  buildings,  in  classic  style,  lying  half  a  mile  up  the 
line  of  quays  along  the  Liffey  from  Bachelor's  Walk.  The 
building  dates  from  1796,  the  site  being  that  on  which  a 
thirteenth-century  convent  had  once  stood.  The  building  is 
of  hard  stone,  and  presented  an  admirable  position  both  for 
defense  and  offense. 

On  each  side  of  the  Four  Courts  the  river  is  spanned  by  a 
bridge  —  Richmond  Bridge  on  the  east  and  Whitworth 
Bridge  on  the  west.  Whitworth  Bridge  leads  directly  to 
Merchants'  Quay  on  the  south  side,  and  thence,  by  Wine- 
tavern  Street  and  Lord  Edward  Street,  to  the  Castle.  Just 
east  of  the  Four  Courts  is  Charles  Street,  where  the  convoy 
from  the  North  Wall  was  held  up  and  captured,  as  already 
mentioned.  On  the  other  side  was  Church  Street,  while  to 
the  rear  of  the  building  extend  a  number  of  small  streets 
running  north. 

The  area  in  the  rear  of  the  Four  Courts  is  one  of  the  most 
closely  populated  in  the  city.  Its  inhabitants  comprise  those 
who  had  the  most  reasons  to  be  in  favor  of  the  Republicans. 
They  were  Irish  men  and  women  compelled  to  live  in  poverty, 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


327 


and  oftentimes  in  squalor,  that  a  benevolent  Government 
might  be  the  better  able  to  show  a  profit  on  its  business  with 
Ireland  during  each  fiscal  year.  Thanks  to  the  noble  work 
of  the  Franciscan  friars,  who  labor  in  this  district,  great 
improvements  have  been  brought  about  among  the  poor  of 
this  locality,  but  with  improvement  and  enlightenment  had 
also  come  a  realization  of  the  truth,  and  the  seeds  of  nation- 
alism had  taken  deep  root  there  and  flourished. 

Running  almost  directly  north  from  the  back  of  the  Four 
Courts  were  Church  Street  and  Beresford  Street,  and  a  little 
to  the  east  of  these  were  Anne  Street,  Halston  Street,  and 
Green  Street.  All  of  these  five  streets  ran  into  King  Street. 
From  King  Street,  almost  in  a  line  with  the  Four  Courts, 
was  Coleraine  Street.  This  latter  formed  the  western  bound- 
ary of  the  Linen  Hall  Barracks.  Back  01  the  barracks  were 
the  gardens  of  Queen's  Inns,  to  the  west  of  which,  as  a 
continuation  of  Coleraine  Street,  was  Constitution  Hill.  A 
little  further  north  Constitution  Hill  branches  in  two,  one 
end  running  northeast  up  to  Dominick  Street  and  the 
Viaduct,  direct  to  the  Broadstone  Station;  the  other,  branch- 
ing northwest,  runs  under  the  Viaduct  to  Phibsboro  Road, 
which  leads  to  Glasnevin.  A  flight  of  steps  enables  pedes- 
trians to  get  from  this  section  of  the  street  up  to  the  Station. 

It  is  of  importance  to  note  that  the  Viaduct  over  the  road 
at  this  point  gave  any  soldiers  who  occupied  it  a  complete 
command  of  Constitution  Hill  as  far  as  its  junction  with 
Coleraine  Street.  The  Viaduct  was  constructed  of  white 
hard  stone,  and  a  parapet,  which  runs  the  entire  length  of 
the  side  facing  Constitution  Hill,  makes  it  possible  for  a  line 
of  riflemen  to  hold  the  position  against  almost  any  odds. 
A  similar  force  posted  at  the  top  of  Dominick  Street  also 
made  it  possible  to  hold  this  approach  to  the  Station,  as  well 
as  the  carriage  way  from  Mountjoy  Street.  At  the  western 
end  of  the  Viaduct,  which  was  only  the  length  of  a  city 
block,  was  the  Station,  also  made  of  stone  and  capable  of 
being  defended  with  sufficient  men  for  any  length  of  time. 

Close  to  the  Dominick  Street  entrance  to  the  Viaduct,  and 


328   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


on  the  northern  side,  is  a  low  wall,  and  at  the  western  end  of 
this  a  narrow  entrance.  This  leads  to  the  bank  of  the  Royal 
Canal.  At  this  end  of  the  canal  is  the  City  Basin,  one  of 
the  terminals  of  the  canal.  From  this  the  canal  runs  in  a 
direct  line  for  a  distance  of  about  half  a  mile  to  Blaquir 
Bridge,  where  the  canal  is  spanned  by  the  North  Circular 
Road.  Blaquir  Bridge  is  the  boundary  line  between  Phibs- 
boro  and  the  city  proper.  Halfway  down  the  canal  a  small 
span  bridge  crosses  from  Geraldine  Street,  but,  with  this 
exception,  there  is  no  approach  to  the  western  side  of  the 
canal  between  Broadstone  Station  and  Blaquir  Bridge. 

From  the  Four  Courts  to  Blaquir  Bridge,  if  we  take  into 
account  the  windings  of  the  streets,  is  nearly  two  miles.  It 
was  this  line  that  the  Republicans  set  out  to  defend.  As 
has  been  shown,  this  area  included  the  Linen  Hall  Barracks, 
which  the  rebels  surrounded,  and  the  line  acted  as  a  barrier 
between  the  center  of  the  city  and  the  Royal  Barracks,  the 
Constabulary  Barracks,  and  the  Marlborough  Barracks.  It 
prevented  the  British  from  these  three  centers  concentrating 
on  the  Post  Office  and  O'Connell  Street.  The  holding  of 
the  Broadstone  Station  also  prevented  the  enemy  moving 
troops  into  the  city  from  the  Galway  route.  The  line  of 
defense  was  crossed  by  innumerable  small  and  narrow  streets, 
which  made  the  movement  of  cavalry,  artillery,  or  large  bodies 
of  troops  practically  impossible.  The  only  routes  by  which 
these  could  be  transferred  from  one  side  of  the  line  to  the 
other  were  along  the  North  Circular  Road  from  the  Phoenix 
Park,  along  the  line  of  quays,  and  possibly  along  North  King 
Street  and  King  Street  into  Bolton  and  Capel  Streets.  In 
order  to  guard  against  these  routes  being  used  by  the  enemy, 
barricades  were  erected  at  important  points,  the  chief  of 
these  being  at  Blaquir  Bridge,  across  the  North  Circular 
Road,  just  above  Dunphy's  (or  Doyle's)  Corner. 

This,  then,  constituted  the  western  line  of  the  defenses,  which 
was  under  the  command  of  Edward  Daly.  At  the  time  that 
these  positions  were  being  occupied,  a  company  of  the  Republi- 
cans was  marching  along  the  northern  line  of  quays  in  the  di- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  329 


rection  of  Phoenix  Park.  Their  intention  was  to  deliver  an  at- 
tack on  the  Magazine  Fort,  situated  in  the  Park  on  a  small  hill 
overlooking  the  Liffey  on  the  south  and  the  city  on  the  east. 

The  fort  was  a  comparatively  modern  structure,  built  of 
stone  and  in  such  a  position  that  it  menaced  every  side  of  the 
city.  For  many  years  prior  to  the  rising  the  men  of  the 
L  R.  B.  had  made  various  plans  for  the  leveling  of  this 
monument  of  British  authority  in  the  land.  In  addition  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  so  placed  as  to  command  every  building 
in  the  city,  it  was  also  the  resort  of  a  number  of  undesirable 
individuals,  and  constituted  a  moral  plague  spot  during  the 
summer  months.  It  was  conceded  that  the  only  way  in 
which  the  fort  could  be  captured  was  by  a  surprise  while  the 
gates  were  open  or  by  a  prolonged  siege,  and  it  was  scarcely 
possible  for  the  Irish  at  that  time  to  secure  sufficient  heavy 
artillery  to  batter  its  walls  to  pieces. 

At  the  time  that  the  Volunteers,  accompanied  by  some 
members  of  the  Citizen  Army,  marched  against  the  fort,  few 
of  those  who  saw  them  passing  up  the  quays  realized  their 
errand.  At  this  time  the  attack  was  proceeding  on  the  Post 
Office,  but  the  news  had  not  yet  traveled  as  far  as  the  Park. 
The  people  who  saw  the  Volunteers  swinging  into  the  park, 
therefore,  took  little  or  no  notice  of  them. 

The  men  advanced  into  the  broad  carriage  way,  leaving 
the  People's  Gardens  on  their  right.  After  a  few  more 
minutes'  march,  a  detachment  of  the  men  branched  off  near 
the  Gough  Monument,  one  of  the  ugliest  in  the  city,  while 
the  other  continued  along  the  carriage  way.  The  smaller 
detachment  continued  to  bear  to  the  left  until  it  came  to  the 
narrow  path  that  led  to  the  south  side  of  the  fort.  The  other 
branched  off  to  the  left  also  and  approached  the  fort  across 
the  fields.  The  foot  of  the  hill  on  the  top  of  which  rested 
the  fort  was  masked  in  low  foliage  which  rose  on  either  side 
of  the  path.  Here  the  men  waited  until  they  were  certain 
that  their  comrades  who  had  taken  the  other  route  had  had 
time  to  get  into  position  on  the  other  side.  Then  occurred 
one  of  the  most  daring  episodes  of  the  Rebellion. 


330   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Three  of  the  Volunteers  marched  up  the  hill  towards  the 
door  of  the  fort,  in  as  unconcerned  a  manner  as  visitors  fresh 
from  the  country.  Their  comrades  remained  under  cover, 
watching  every  movement  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort.  The 
three  arrived  at  the  gateway  and,  finding  it  open,  marched 
through.  The  sentry  inside  eyed  them  with  more  or  less 
indifference.  The  " visitors"  asked  if  the  commanding  officer 
was  inside,  and,  receiving  the  reply  that  he  was  not,  was 
asked  who  was  taking  his  place.  The  name  of  an  officer  was 
mentioned.  On  being  asked  where  this  officer  could  be  found, 
the  sentry  inquired  their  business,  and  was  too  surprised  for  a 
moment  to  frame  a  reply  when  he  was  told  by  the  three  men 
that  they  had  come  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  fort  in 
the  name  of  the  Irish  Republic.  When  at  last  he  grasped 
the  meaning  of  the  words,  he  laughed  and  asked  what  the 
joke  was. 

"It  is  not  a  joke,"  was  the  serious  reply.  "The  Volunteers 
have  established  a  Republic  in  the  city;  every  point  of 
importance,  including  the  Castle,  is  in  our  hands,  and  we 
want  the  surrender  of  this  fort  in  order  to  avoid  a  great  deal 
of  unnecessary  bloodshed." 

Probably  thinking  that  he  was  dealing  with  three  harmless 
lunatics  or  practical  jokers,  the  sentry  told  them  that  they 
were  not  doing  any  surrendering  that  day,  as  it  was  a  holiday. 
But  when  a  revolver  was  brought  into  unpleasant  proximity 
with  his  breast,  he  decided  that  the  joke  was  a  serious  one. 
He  was  told  that  his  life  would  be  quite  safe  provided  that 
he  made  no  attempt  to  resist,  and  his  rifle  was  taken  from 
him  while  he  was  still  undecided  whether  to  submit  or  to 
die  the  death  of  a  hero.  Meanwhile  one  of  the  three  waved 
a  handkerchief  as  a  signal  to  his  comrades  outside.  The 
entire  attacking  force  advanced  up  the  slopes  to  the  fort  at  a 
run. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  someone  inside  the  fort  noticed 
that  something  peculiar  was  taking  place  at  the  outer  gate. 
He  sauntered  over,  and  was  immediately  covered  with  half 
a  dozen  rifles.    Placing  guards  over  the  two  prisoners,  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  331 


Volunteers  rushed  into  the  fort,  and  within  a  couple  of 
minutes  it  was  in  their  hands.  The  attack  was  a  complete 
surprise,  and  the  soldiers  in  the  fort  were  disarmed  and 
imprisoned  in  one  of  their  own  dormitories  before  they  had 
had  time  to  assimilate  the  idea  that  there  was  really  a  revolu- 
tion in  being. 

It  had  been  the  intention  of  the  Volunteers  to  blow  up  the 
fort,  but  the  dynamite  was  not  available,  so  they  allowed  the 
soldiers  to  remain  in  their  dormitory  while  they  destroyed 
the  locks  of  every  piece  of  artillery  in  the  place.  They  then 
collected  all  the  small  arms  and  ammunition  they  were  able 
to  find,  and,  having  parceled  this  among  their  number, 
prepared  to  leave  the  fort.  It  was  of  no  importance  now 
that  the  artillery  it  contained  had  been  rendered  useless, 
and  they  had  secured  their  end  also  in  capturing  the  stores 
with  which  the  fort  was  stocked. 

So  quietly  had  the  whole  incident  been  carried  out  that 
scores  of  people  in  the  immediate  vicinity  at  the  time  knew 
nothing  of  what  had  taken  place,  until  they  saw  the  Volun- 
teers marching  out  of  the  fort,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  victory. 
Every  man  was  carrying  at  least  a  couple  of  rifles,  and 
several  bandoliers  of  cartridges,  and,  as  they  swung  out 
through  the  gateway  and  down  the  slopes  to  the  paths, 
the  significance  of  what  was  taking  place  began  to  dawn  on 
the  observers.  It  was  only  then  that  someone  noticed  that  the 
Union  Jack  was  no  longer  flying  from  the  flagpole.  The 
marching  Volunteers  were  crowded  on  all  sides  as  they 
marched  back  to  the  carriage  way,  and  to  all  who  questioned 
them  they  replied  that  Ireland  was  in  rebellion  and  that  they 
had  captured  the  Magazine  Fort  and  taken  away  all  the 
rifles  and  ammunition  it  contained. 

The  victorious  little  company  was  unmolested  in  its  inarch 
down  the  quays.  Here  the  Four  Courts  were  being  occupied, 
and  people  were  standing  in  dense  crowds  outside  on  the 
quay,  watching  the  men  inside  putting  the  place  into  condi- 
tion to  withstand  attack.  All  the  windows  were  smashed, 
and  thousands  of  bulky  volumes  of  the  law  were  placed 


382   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


behind  the  windows  to  form  barricades.  Sentries  had  already- 
been  posted  on  the  roof,  and  the  occupation  of  the  entire  line 
all  the  way  to  Balquir  Bridge  was  in  active  progress. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  the  men  who  had  taken  the 
Magazine  Fort  arrived.  The  crowd  immediately  made  a 
path  for  them,  and  they  marched  through  the  main  entrance 
into  the  building  to  the  accompaniment  of  rousing  cheers 
from  their  comrades.  The  rifles  and  ammunition  they  had 
captured  were  sorely  needed,  and  arrangements  were  at  once 
made  for  the  transfer  of  some  of  it  to  the  men  who  were 
forming  the  line  to  Phibsboro.  At  this  time  the  sound  of 
shooting  across  the  river  told  the  watchers  that  the  Rebellion 
had  broken  out  there  also,  and  that  the  attack  on  the  Castle 
was  in  progress. 

The  foregoing  chapters  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  Irish  took  possession  of  the  points 
of  vantage  throughout  the  city  on  the  first  day  of  the  rising. 
The  two  outstanding  facts  of  the  events  of  the  first  day  are 
that  the  Irish  had  laid  their  plans  with  superb  skill,  and  that 
the  British,  who  had  other  plans  made,  were  so  confused  at 
the  manner  in  which  they  had  been  forestalled  that  they 
were  unable  to  prevent  the  plans  of  the  rebels  being  carried 
out  practically  in  their  entirety.  In  a  line  stretching  from 
Ringsend  to  Portobello  Bridge  and  thence  to  the  South 
Dublin  Union,  from  Liberty  Hall  and  Amiens  Street  to 
Fairview,  from  the  Post  Office  to  the  Four  Courts,  and  from 
the  Four  Courts  up  to  Phibsboro,  the  Republicans  held  a 
ring  around  the  city. 

Above  all  else  the  Irish  had  demonstrated  that  the  British 
positions  were  not  impregnable;  that  the  English  soldiery 
were  not  so  terrible  as  they  had  tried  to  make  the  people 
believe,  and  that,  given  approximately  equal  numbers  and  a 
fair  field,  their  term  of  oppression  in  Ireland  would  come  to 
an  end. 


CHAPTER  LI 


The  British  Scared 

IT  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment had,  through  its  representatives  in  Ireland,  ar- 
ranged to  hold  a  pogrom  on  Easter  Monday  in  Dublin. 
At  the  same  time,  it  was  not  inclined  to  take  any  chances. 
Its  idea  was  to  flood  the  city  with  armed  soldiers,  and,  know- 
ing that  the  Irish  were  certain  to  resist,  to  shoot  them  down 
in  cold  blood  and  thus  put  an  end  at  once  to  the  Volunteers 
and  the  Citizen  Army. 

Should  there  be  anyone  who  doubts  that  the  above  state- 
ments are  correct,  the  following  extract  from  the  report  of 
the  Hardinge  Commission  will  convince  him.  After  referring 
to  the  conferences  which  were  held  at  Dublin  Castle  on  Easter 
Saturday  and  Easter  Sunday,  and  which  have  already  been 
detailed,  the  report  continues: 

It  was  eventually  decided  that  the  proper  course  was  to  arrest  all 
the  leaders  of  the  movement,  there  being  by  this  time  clear  evidence 
of  their  "hostile  association,"  but  it  was  agreed  that,  before  this 
could  be  safely  done,  military  preparations  sufficient  to  overawe 
armed  opposition  should  be  secured. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  24th  April  the  Chief  Secretary's  con- 
currence with  the  proposed  arrest  and  internment  in  England  of 
the  hostile  leaders  was  asked  for  and  obtained,  but  before  any  fur- 
ther effective  steps  could  be  taken  the  insurrection  had  broken  out, 
and  by  noon  many  portions  of  the  City  of  Dublin  had  been  simul- 
taneously occupied  by  rebellious  armed  forces. 

There  have  been  found  many  people,  including  some 
patriotic  Irishmen,  who  have  in  all  sincerity  expressed  the 
opinion  that  the  Rebellion  was  rashly  planned  and  ill-timed. 
They  hold  that  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  waited  for 
a  more  opportune  time,  when  the  men  could  have  been  again 


334   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


mobilized  and  would  have  been  better  armed.  They  pointed 
out  that  the  total  number  of  men  fighting  under  the  Repub- 
lican colors  did  not  far  exceed  1200,  and  that  they  had  no 
chance  against  the  superior  and  better  armed  forces  of  the 
British.  Of  these  1200  not  more  than  one-half  were  effec- 
tively armed,  and  a  certain  proportion  carried  practically  no 
weapons  that  were  effective  against  modern  rifles.  These 
things  are  undoubtedly  true,  but  these  well-meaning  critics 
apparently  do  not  give  proper  consideration  to  the  circum- 
stances which  compelled  the  men  to  fight.  Had  they  made 
any  attempt  to  postpone  the  rising,  they  would  have  been 
shot  down  in  the  streets  or  in  their  own  houses,  whereas,  by 
rising  when  they  did,  they  were  at  least  able  to  put  up  some 
resistance  and  to  demonstrate  that  the  soul  of  Ireland  still 
lived  and  throbbed  as  it  did  in  every  previous  generation. 
Only  the  fact  that  they  had  positive  information  of  the  plot 
that  the  military  had  hatched  forced  them  to  strike  when 
they  did.  That  this  information  was  absolutely  correct,  is 
shown  beyond  a  doubt  by  the  extract  from  the  finding  of 
the  British  Commission  just  quoted. 

As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  the  rebels  rose  not  a  moment 
too  soon.  The  police  had  already  been  taken  from  the 
streets  in  order  that  they  would  not  interfere  with  the  opera- 
tions of  the  military.  Close  on  2500  British  troops  were  at 
that  time  quartered  in  the  city,  and  the  military  authorities 
were  but  awaiting  the  arrival  of  other  troops  from  the  Curragh, 
which  had  already  been  sent  for,  to  put  their  plans  into  actual 
operation.  They  had  planned  to  strike  late  in  the  evening, 
when  they  could  take  at  least  some  of  the  men  in  their  beds, 
and,  having  planted  the  troops  in  every  quarter  of  the  city, 
to  inaugurate  a  reign  of  terror  by  shooting  every  man  who 
refused  to  go  along  quietly  and  submit  to  arrest  and  dis- 
armament. 

As  showing  that  these  preparations  had  been  made  and 
that  troops  had  been  ordered  from  the  Curragh  —  a  fact  which 
the  British  apologists  are  most  anxious  to  deny  —  there  are 
also  two  little  admissions,  simple  in  themselves  but  signifi- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  335 


cant  in  conjunction  with  the  other  facts  which  have  been 
mentioned.  These  facts  show,  in  very  clear  fashion,  that  the 
British  were  in  the  act  of  making  their  final  preparations 
when  the  Rebellion  broke  out  and  forestalled  them  in  the 
nick  of  time.  The  first  of  these  admissions  is  contained  in 
the  official  report  forwarded  to  Lord  Kitchener  by  Field- 
Marshall  Sir  John  French,  the  Commander  in  Chief  of  the 
Home  Forces,  to  which  position  he  had  been  assigned  after  his 
removal  from  his  post  in  France.    French  wrote  as  follows: 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Rebellion  broke  out  in  Dublin  at 
12:15  p.m.  on  April  24th,  and  that  by  5:  20  p.m.  on  the  same  after- 
noon a  considerable  force  from  the  Curragh  had  arrived  in  Dublin 
to  reinforce  the  garrison,  and  other  troops  were  on  their  way  from 
Athlone,  Belfast,  and  Templemore.  The  celerity  with  which  these 
reinforcements  became  available  says  much  for  the  arrangements  which 
had  been  made  to  meet  such  a  contingency. 

The  other  admission  is  that  made  by  Sir  John  Maxwell, 
the  man  who  took  charge  of  the  operations  for  the  British 
on  April  28th,  in  the  course  of  a  report  in  which  he  says  that 
an  inlying  picket  of  400  was  being  held  in  readiness  at  the 
very  moment  that  the  Rebellion  broke  out.  This  is  con- 
tained in  his  report  on  the  operations  made  to  Sir  John 
French. 

At  the  time  of  the  Rebellion  the  headquarters  of  the  mili- 
tary were  located  in  the  Royal  Hospital,  which  is  situated  at 
Kilmainham  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  some  little  dis- 
tance north  and  west  of  the  South  Dublin  Union.  General 
Field,  who  was  in  command  of  the  British  troops  in  Ireland, 
was  on  short  leave  in  England  at  the  time,  it  being  considered 
better  that  an  inferior  officer  should  have  control  of  the  po- 
grom operations  in  view  of  a  possible  later  "inquiry."  In 
addition,  Colonel  Kennard,  the  Dublin  Garrison  commander, 
was  for  the  same  reason  also  out  of  the  city.  A  number  of 
other  officers  had  gone  for  an  hour  or  two  to  the  races  at 
Leopardstown  in  order  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  work 
of  the  night. 


336   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


At  fifteen  minutes  after  noon  on  Easter  Monday  morning 
a  telephone  message  was  received  at  the  Royal  Hospital  from 
the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Police  stating  that  Dublin  Castle 
had  been  attacked  by  "armed  Sinn  Feiners."  The  news  was 
received  with  incredulity,  but  it  was  immediately  confirmed 
by  another  telephone  message,  this  time  from  the  Dublin 
Garrison  Adjutant.  This  officer  reported  that  the  attack  on 
the  Castle  was  in  full  swing,  and  that  he  had  received  in- 
formation to  the  effect  that  the  rebels  had  also  attacked 
the  Post  Office  in  "Sackville"  Street.  He  said  that,  in  the 
absence  of  his  chief,  he  had  taken  upon  himself  the  respon- 
sibility of  ordering  all  the  available  troops  at  Portobello, 
Richmond,  and  the  Royal  Barracks  to  proceed  to  the  relief 
of  the  Castle,  and  had  also  ordered  the  Sixth  Reserve  Cavalry 
Regiment  to  proceed  to  the  Post  Office. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  number  of  Republicans 
probably  did  not  exceed  1200.  At  the  moment  that  the 
Rebellion  broke  out,  there  were  more  than  double  that  num- 
ber of  British  soldiers  in  the  city  itself,  every  one  of  whom 
was  efficiently  armed  and  was  a  trained  soldier.  It  was 
stated  by  men  who  were  in  a  good  position  to  judge  that 
there  were  close  on  4000  British  troops  in  the  city  at  the 
time.  Whether  this  was  the  case  or  not,  is  not  of  material 
importance.  The  British  official  reports  admit  to  over  2400, 
or  in  the  ratio  of  two  to  one  against  the  Irish.  These  troops 
were,  according  to  these  official  reports,  the  Sixth  Reserve 
Cavalry  Regiment  (35  officers  and  851  other  ranks);  the 
Third  Royal  Irish  Regiment  (18  officers  and  385  other  ranks); 
the  Tenth  Royal  Dublin  Fusiliers  (37  officers  and  430  other 
ranks),  and  the  Third  Royal  Irish  Rifles  (21  officers  and 
650  other  ranks).  There  were  thus  in  Dublin  111  officers 
and  2316  other  ranks,  or  a  grand  total  of  2427.  Against 
these  were  pitted  1200  Irish  Volunteers,  not  eighty  per  cent 
of  whom  were  armed. 

Fifteen  minutes  after  the  receipt  of  the  first  notification  of 
the  Rebellion,  a  telephone  message  was  dispatched  to  the 
General  Officer  Commanding  at  the  Curragh  ordering  him 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  337 


to  mobilize  the  mobile  column,  which  consisted  of  1600 
officers  and  men,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Portal.  The 
official  dispatches,  which  have  already  been  mentioned,  add 
the  significant  statement  that  these  troops  had  already  been 
"arranged  for  to  meet  any  emergency."  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  this  column  had  been  ordered  mobilized  the  previous 
day  in  order  to  take  part  in  the  pogrom,  and  was  to  have 
arrived  in  Dublin  on  the  evening  train  at  Kingsbridge. 

Following  the  sending  of  this  message,  the  telephone  serv- 
ice became  practically  useless,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
rebels  had  cut  the  wires  at  various  points,  as  well  as  taking 
over  the  control  of  the  switchboards  at  the  General  Post 
Office.  This  rather  disarranged  the  plans  of  the  British,  and 
a  condition  approaching  panic  became  noticeable.  They  had 
no  exact  knowledge  of  the  force  arrayed  against  them,  be- 
yond the  fact  that  it  was  greatly  inferior  to  their  own. 
Through  indirect  sources  they  learned  that  the  Republicans 
had  seized  the  Four  Courts  and  Jacob's  Biscuit  Factory. 
Close  on  the  heels  of  this  information  came  the  report  that 
the  cavalry  had  suffered  a  severe  repulse  in  O'Connell  Street 
and  that  the  Castle  had  been  taken.  While  they  were  still 
trying  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  these  ominous  tidings,  a 
breathless  messsenger  arrived  with  the  added  news  that  the 
Magazine  Fort  in  the  Phoenix  Park  had  been  captured,  and 
that  Stephen's  Green  was  said  to  have  been  occupied  by  the 
Volunteers. 

For  over  half  an  hour  the  military  were  in  hopeless  con- 
fusion. Each  new  report  added  a  still  more  sinister  aspect 
to  the  situation,  and  fears  were  expressed  that  the  Republi- 
cans meant  to  carry  out  the  very  programme  that  had  been 
arranged  by  the  British  —  in  other  words  that  it  was  the  in- 
tention of  the  Sinn  Feiners  to  massacre  all  the  British  soldiers, 
with  the  single  difference  that  the  massacre  was  to  be  con- 
ducted in  broad  daylight  instead  of  in  the  hours  of  the  night. 

One  of  the  younger  officers  ofTered  a  possible  solution  of  the 
problem.  It  was,  he  pointed  out,  essential  that  they  should 
be  able  to  get  a  message  to  London  without  a  minute's  un- 


338    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


necessary  loss  of  time,  telling  Kitchener  of  their  peril.  The 
best  manner,  he  said,  in  which  this  could  be  done  was  to 
send  a  message  to  the  Naval  Station  at  Kingstown,  where 
it  could  be  relayed  by  wireless  to  London.  He  offered  to 
take  this  message  himself,  and  his  offer  was  immediately  ac- 
cepted. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  his  action  was  so  far 
ignored  later  that  his  name  was  not  even  mentioned  in  dis- 
patches. 

Doffing  his  military  uniform  and  attired  in  his  civilian 
clothes,  the  young  officer  secured  a  bicycle  and,  with  the 
written  message  in  his  hat,  started  on  his  lengthy  journey. 
He  rode  past  the  South  Dublin  Union,  where  he  saw  the 
Volunteers  under  Eamonn  Ceannt  making  preparations  for 
defense,  but  they,  thinking  he  was  a  civilian,  allowed  him 
to  pass  unchallenged.  He  crossed  the  canal  at  Harcourt 
Bridge,  and  then,  making  a  detour,  passed  the  Crumlin 
quarry  and  thence  out  to  Rathmines,  from  which  place  he 
proceeded  to  Kingstown.  Here  he  delivered  his  message  at 
the  Naval  Station,  whence  it  was  transmitted  to  the  War 
Office  at  London.  The  news  that  a  Republic  had  been  pro- 
claimed in  Dublin  thus  reached  the  ears  of  Lord  Kitchener, 
who  lost  no  time  in  making  preparations  to  meet  the  situa- 
tion. 

It  is  a  coincidence  worthy  of  note  that  General  Friend  was 
in  London  at  the  time  that  the  news  arrived,  and  that  he 
was  actually  on  his  way  to  the  War  Office  at  the  time  when 
the  message  was  being  received  from  Kingstown.  It  does 
not  require  any  effort  of  the  imagination  to  picture  the 
dismay  in  London  at  the  receipt  of  the  news.  While  the 
members  of  the  Government  had  long  since  known  that  every- 
thing in  Ireland  was  not  just  as  they  represented  it  to  be  to 
the  rest  of  the  world,  it  is  very  probable  that  they  believed 
they  were  perfectly  safe,  and  that  the  Irish  people  would 
never  attempt  to  strike  a  blow  against  the  sacred  Empire. 
So  when  the  aerial  waves  flashed  the  intelligence  that  the 
old  fight  was  on  again,  the  British,  not  knowing  with  what 
they  had  to  contend,  and  feeling  that  the  very  foundations 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION"  OF  1916  339 


of  the  British  Empire  were  tottering,  decided  to  take  no 
chances,  and,  having  some  little  idea  of  the  fighting  quali- 
ties of  the  Irish,  made  arrangements  for  the  sending  of  an 
army  to  Ireland. 

The  Fifty-ninth  Division  was  at  that  time  encamped  at 
St.  Albans,  and  orders  were  issued  by  General  French  for  its 
immediate  transfer  to  Ireland.  French  took  this  action  on 
his  own  responsibility.  "I  am  aware,*'  he  says  in  an  official 
report,  "that  in  doing  this  I  was  acting  beyond  the  power 
delegated  to  me,  but  I  considered  the  situation  to  be  so  criti- 
cal that  it  was  necessary  to  act  at  once  without  reference  to 
the  Army  Council."  Orders  were  at  the  same  time  issued 
to  the  Admiralty,  calling  for  warships  and  transports,  and 
these  were  promptly  forthcoming.  Judging  by  the  feverish 
haste  with  which  the  various  departments  of  the  Government 
acted,  it  is  probable  that  the  officials  received  a  greater  shock 
than  at  any  time  since  the  Spanish  Armada. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  first  news  of  the  Rebellion  was  re- 
ceived by  the  British  in  Dublin  at  fifteen  minutes  after  noon. 
At  4.45  the  same  afternoon,  the  first  troop  train  from  the 
Curragh  arrived  at  Kingsbridge  Station,  and  at  5.^0  p.ir. 
the  whole  cavalry  column,  1600  strong,  had  arrived,  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Portal.  At  the  same  time  orders 
were  issued  for  the  following  troops  to  proceed  to  Dublin: 

A  battery  of  four  eighteen-pounders  R.  F.  A.,  from  the 
Reserve  Artillery  Brigade  at  Athlone; 

The  Fourth  Dublin  Fusiliers  from  Templemore; 

A  composite  battalion  from  Belfast; 

An  additional  1000  men  from  the  Curragh. 

Meantime  Colonel  Kennard  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
Dublin  troops,  and  the  defense  of  the  docks  at  the  North 
Wall  was  undertaken  by  Mayor  H.  F.  Somerville.  command- 
ing a  detachment  from  the  School  of  Musketry,  Dolfymount, 
reinforced  by  660  officers  and  men  of  the  Ninth  Reserve 
Cavalry  Regiment. 


CHAPTER  LII 

Getting  to  Grips 

THE  story  of  the  First  Irish  Republic  may  be  divided 
into  three  parts  for  the  purpose  of  easier  comprehen- 
sion. In  the  first,  the  particulars  of  which  have  already 
been  detailed,  fall  the  initial  operations  of  the  Republicans 
in  seizing  the  City  of  Dublin  and  the  first  steps  taken  by 
the  British  to  counteract  these  operations.  In  the  second 
will  be  considered  the  actual  fighting  that  took  place  in 
the  city  up  to  that  time  when  it  became  obvious  to  the 
leaders  of  the  Insurrection  that  they  had  failed  so  far  as 
a  military  victory  over  the  enemy  was  concerned.  The 
final  phase  will  deal  with  the  last  scenes  of  the  Rebellion 
and  the  incidents  following  the  surrender  of  the  insurgents. 
It  will  be  necessary  now  to  consider  the  second  phase  of 
the  story. 

The  reader  has  already  been  given  a  fair  idea  of  the  extent 
to  which  the  rebels  had  entrenched  themselves  in  the  city  by 
midnight  on  April  24.  At  that  time  the  Republic  had  been 
in  existence  for  a  period  of  twelve  hours,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  some  sharp  fighting  at  the  Castle  and  one  or  two 
other  points,  there  had  been  nothing  important  to  note,  with 
the  exception  of  the  excellent  manner  in  which  the  rebels 
had  carried  out  their  plans. 

It  was  a  curious  situation  that  existed  in  O'Connell  Street. 
At  Nelson's  Pillar  a  strong  barricade  was  thrown  up,  and 
the  rebels  were  in  possession  of  many  of  the  houses  and  build- 
ings at  each  end  of  the  street.  An  occasional  shot  was  fired, 
as  a  sniper  caught  sight  of  a  British  uniform,  or  a  British 
soldier  discovered  the  whereabouts  of  an  Irish  marksman. 
Incidentally,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  one  of  the  most  strik- 
ing features  of  the  whole  rising  was  the  superior  shooting  of 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


341 


the  Irish.  There  were  innumerable  incidents  where  a  lone 
Irish  sniper  was  able  to  hold  at  bay  several  enemy  soldiers, 
simply  on  account  of  the  superior  use  which  the  Irishman 
made  of  his  ammunition.  Ammunition  was  scarce  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Republicans;  every  shot  was  of  value,  and  but 
few  of  them  were  wasted. 

Up  to  midnight  crowds  paraded  up  and  down  O'Connell 
Street,  taking  the  keenest  interest  in  what  was  being  done 
by  the  Republicans.  Now  and  then  a  shot  whistled  along 
the  street,  but  this  did  not  deter  the  people.  At  the  same 
time  Republican  sentries  paraded  up  and  down  the  street, 
advising  the  people  to  go  home  so  as  to  be  out  of  danger.  In 
addition  to  the  sentries,  there  were  a  number  of  Republican 
police,  who  had  been  appointed  by  President  Pearse  at  the 
request  of  Sheehy-Skeffington,  and  who  were  instrumental 
in  preventing  a  renewal  of  the  looting  that  had  broken  out 
earlier  in  the  day. 

There  was  some  excitement  when  it  became  known  that 
an  attack  was  in  progress  at  the  Custom  House,  where  the 
men  of  the  Citizen  Army  were  engaged  with  the  Ninth  Re- 
serve Cavalry  Regiment.  Here  the  fight  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. It  was  not  the  intention  of  Commander  Connolly  to 
try  to  continue  to  hold  the  Custom  House  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  his  men  were  already  dangerously  attenuated  by 
being  distributed  over  so  large  a  territory.  At  the  same  time, 
he  ordered  that  the  British  should  not  be  allowed  to  get  into 
the  building  without  paying  a  price  for  it. 

It  therefore  happened  that  Beresford  Square  once  more  be- 
came the  scene  of  a  battle  between  the  representatives  of  an 
alien  government  and  the  people  of  the  country.  The  British 
advanced  at  a  run  along  the  quays,  taking  the  fullest  ad- 
vantage of  every  point  that  afforded  cover  and  protected  by 
the  uprights  on  the  canal  bridge  in  front  of  the  Custom 
House  itself.  A  sharp  volley  greeted  the  appearance  of  the 
British,  who  immediately  halted  at  the  bridge  head  and 
threw  themselves  flat  on  the  ground.  A  lively  engagement 
ensued,  but  this  action  was  merely  a  mask  for  the  operations 


342   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


of  another  section  of  the  English  force  which  gained  an  en- 
trance to  the  Custom  House  on  the  eastern  side.  These 
soon  made  their  presence  felt  by  directing  a  withering  fire 
on  the  Irish,  and  the  latter  withdrew  into  Liberty  Hall, 
turning  Beresford  Place  into  a  No  Man's  Land,  which  it  was 
death  to  enter. 

By  their  success  in  this  action,  the  British  gained  an  im- 
portant position.  Built  of  solid  stone,  the  Custom  House 
formed  an  invaluable  position  to  the  attackers,  facing,  as  it 
did,  directly  on  Liberty  Hall.  It  is  improbable  that  it  was 
at  any  time  the  intention  of  the  rebels  to  attempt  to  hold 
Liberty  Hall  strongly,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not  a 
place  easy  to  defend,  both  on  account  of  its  exposed  posi- 
tion and  its  weak  condition.  Nevertheless,  the  capture  of 
the  Custom  House  was  the  first  act  in  the  operations  against 
the  Post  Office  in  O'Connell  Street,  and  its  importance  is  not 
to  be  minimized.  In  his  official  report,  already  referred 
to,  General  Maxwell  says: 

The  occupation  of  the  Customs  House,  which  dominated  Liberty 
Hall,  was  carried  out  at  midnight,  and  was  of  great  assistance  in 
later  operations  against  Liberty  Hall. 

Continuing  his  report,  General  Maxwell  wrote: 

The  situation  at  midnight  was  that  we  held  the  Magazine,  Phoenix 
Park,  the  Castle  and  the  Ship  Street  entrance  to  the  Castle,  the 
Royal  Hospital,  all  barracks,  the  Kingsbridge,  Amiens  Street  and 
North  Wall  railway  stations,  the  Dublin  Telephone  exchange  in 
Crown  Alley,  the  Electric  Power  Station  at  Pigeon  House  Fort, 
Trinity  College,  Mountjoy  Prison  and  Kingstown  Harbor.  The 
Sinn  Feiners  held  Sackville  (O'Connell)  Street,  and  blocks  of  build- 
ings on  each  side  of  this,  including  Liberty  Hall,  with  their  head- 
quarters at  the  General  Post  Office,  the  Four  Courts,  Jacob's 
Biscuit  Factory,  the  South  Dublin  Union,  St.  Stephen's  Green,  all 
the  approaches  to  the  Castle  except  the  Ship  Street  entrance,  and 
many  houses  all  over  the  city,  especially  about  Ballsbridge  and 
Beggar's  Bush. 

It  may  not  be  unimportant  to  point  out  that  the  General 
made  a  mistake  in  saying  that  the  British  held  Dublin  Castle. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  343 


It  is  true  that  a  number  of  the  British  were  holding  out  in 
the  upper  courtyard,  but  the  Irish  held  the  rest  of  the  place, 
including,  as  he  says,  all  the  approaches  to  it,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Ship  Street.  It  is  also  worthy  of  mention  that  no 
attempt  was  made  by  the  rebels  to  take  possession  of  Mount- 
joy  Prison,  Kingstown  Harbor,  the  Power  House  or  the  tele- 
phone exchange.  The  names  of  these  places,  particularly 
Kingstown  Harbor,  which  lay  several  miles  outside  the  city 
and  would  have  required  an  army  and  a  fleet  to  hold,  were 
evidently  thrown  into  the  report  to  balance  the  number  of 
places  held  by  the  Irish.  While  mentioning  three  of  the 
railroad  stations  held  by  the  British,  he  forgets  to  mention 
one  of  the  most  important,  the  Broadstone,  which  was  still 
in  possession  of  the  Irish.  Regarding  the  Castle,  the  vera- 
cious British  commander  evidently  forgot  that  he  was  lying, 
for  he  admitted,  a  few  paragraphs  later,  that  they  were  plan- 
ning to  relieve  the  position  which  he  said  he  held. 
Continuing,  he  says: 

On  April  23th  Brigadier-General  W.  H.  M.  Lowe,  commanding 
the  Reserve  Cavalry  Brigade  at  the  Curragh,  arrived  at  Kingsbridge 
Station  at  3.45  a.m.  with  the  leading  troops  from  the  twenty-fifth 
(Irish)  Reserve  Infantry  Brigade,  and  assumed  command  of  the 
forces  in  the  Dublin  area,  which  were  roughly  2300  men  of  the 
Dublin  garrison,  the  Curragh  Mobile  Column  of  1500  dismounted 
cavalrymen,  and  840  men  of  the  twenty-fifth  Irish  Reserve  Infantry 
Brigade. 

In  order  to  relieve  and  get  communication  with  the  Castle,  Colonel 
Portal,  commanding  the  Curragh  Mobile  Column,  was  ordered  to 
establish  a  line  of  posts  from  Kingsbridge  Station  to  Trinity  College 
via  the  Castle.  This  was  completed  by  12  noon,  25th  April,  with 
very  little  loss.  It  divided  the  rebel  forces  into  two,  gave  a  safe 
line  of  advance  for  troops  extending  operations  to  the  north  and 
south,  and  permitted  communication  by  dispatch  rider  with  some 
of  the  commands.  The  only  means  of  communication  previous  to 
this  had  been  by  telephone,  which  was  unquestionably  being  tapped. 

The  Dublin  University  O.  T.  C.  (Officers'  Training  Corps),  under 
Captain  E.  H.  Alton,  and  subsequently  Major  G.  A.  Harris,  held  the 
College  buildings  until  tho  troops  arrived.    The  holding  of  these 


S44   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


buildings  separated  the  rebel  center  round  the  General  Post  Office 
from  that  round  St.  Stephen's  Green;  it  established  a  valuable  base 
for  the  collection  of  reinforcements  as  they  arrived,  and  prevented 
the  rebels  from  entering  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  which  is  directly  oppo- 
site to  and  commanded  by  the  college  buildings. 

During  the  day  the  twenty-fourth  Royal  Dublin  Fusiliers  from 
Templemore,  a  composite  Ulster  battalion  from  Belfast,  and  a  bat- 
tery of  four  18-pounder  guns  from  the  Reserve  Artillery  Brigade  at 
Athlone  arrived,  and  this  allowed  a  cordon  to  be  established  round 
the  northern  part  of  the  city  from  Parkgate  along  the  North  Cir- 
cular Road  to  North  Wall.  Broadstone  Railway  Station  was  cleared  of 
rebels,  and  a  barricade  near  Phibsboro  was  destroyed  by  artillery  fire. 

As  a  heavy  fire  was  being  kept  up  on  the  Castle  from  the  rebels 
located  in  the  Corporation  Buildings,  The  Daily  Express  officers,  and 
several  houses  opposite  the  City  Hall,  it  was  decided  to  attack  these 
buildings. 

The  assault  on  The  Daily  Express  offices  was  successfully  carried 
out  under  very  heavy  fire  by  a  detachment  of  the  fifth  Royal  Dublin 
Fusiliers  under  Second  Lieutenant  F.  O'Neill. 

The  main  forces  of  the  rebels  now  having  been  located  in  and 
around  Sackville  Street,  the  Four  Courts  and  adjoining  buildings,  it 
was  decided  to  try  to  enclose  that  area  north  of  the  Liffey  by  a 
cordon  of  troops  so  as  to  localize,  as  far  as  possible,  the  efforts  of 
the  rebels. 

The  thoughtful  reader  will  not  fail  to  note  one  important 
fact  in  connection  with  this  portion  of  the  report  made  by 
the  British  commander.  Unlike  many  others,  he,  at  least, 
was  not  inclined  to  minimize  the  seriousness  of  the  task 
which  confronted  the  British  troops.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  faced  by  a  force  of  men  inadequately  armed, 
without  machine  guns  or  artillery,  and  outnumbered  two  or 
three  to  one  by  the  professional  soldiers  of  England,  he  de- 
cided it  was  essential  that  more  and  still  more  troops  should 
be  brought  into  the  city,  until  the  Irish  Republicans  were 
overwhelmed  by  a  force  of  over  fifty  to  one,  backed  by  ma- 
chine and  artillery  guns  and  a  naval  gunboat. 

Before  dealing  with  the  actual  operations  of  Tuesday,  let 
us  turn  for  a  moment  to  another  document  of  historical 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  345 


value.  This  was  the  statement  issued  by  the  Provisional 
Government  in  the  first  and  only  issue  of  Irish  War  News, 
the  newspaper  published  by  the  rebels,  and  dated  Dublin, 
Tuesday,  April  25,  1916.  On  the  fourth  and  last  page  of 
this  little  paper  is  the  following: 

STOP  PRESS! 


THE  IRISH  REPUBLIC 


Irish  War  News  is  published  to-day  because  a  momentous 
thing  has  happened.  The  Irish  Republic  has  been  proclaimed  in 
Dublin,  and  a  Provisional  Government  has  been  appointed  to  admin- 
ister its  affairs.  The  following  have  been  named  as  the  Provisional 
Government :  — 

Thomas  J.  Clarke,  Thomas  MacDonagh, 

Sean  MacDiarmada,  Eamonn  Ceanxt, 

P.  H.  Pearse,  Joseph  Plunkett, 

James  Connolly. 

The  Irish  Republic  was  proclaimed  by  a  poster,  which  was  promi- 
nently displayed  in  Dublin. 

At  9.30  a.m.  this  morning  the  following  statement  was  made  by 
Commandant-General  P.  H.  Pearse: 

The  Irish  Republic  was  proclaimed  in  Dublin  on  Easter  Monday, 
24th  April,  at  12  noon.  Simultaneously  with  the  issue  of  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  Provisional  Government  the  Dublin  Division  of  the 
Army  of  the  Republic,  including  the  Irish  Volunteers,  Citizen  Army, 
Hibernian  Rifles,  and  other  bodies,  occupied  dominating  points  in 
the  city.  The  G.  P.  O.  was  seized  at  12  noon,  the  Castle  was  at- 
tacked at  the  same  moment,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  Four  Courts 
were  occupied.  The  Irish  troops  hold  the  City  Hall  and  dominate 
the  Castle.  Attacks  were  immediately  commenced  by  the  British 
forces  and  were  everywhere  repulsed.  At  the  moment  of  writing  this 
report  (9:30  a.m.  Tuesday)  the  Republican  forces  hold  all  their  posi- 
tions and  the  British  forces  have  nowhere  broken  through.  There 
has  been  heavy  and  continuous  fighting  for  nearly  twenty-four  hours, 
the  casualties  of  the  enemy  being  much  more  numerous  than  those 
on  the  Republican  side.    The  Republican  forces  everywhere  are 


346   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


fighting  with  splendid  gallantry.  The  populace  of  Dublin  are  plainly 
with  the  Republic,  and  the  officers  and  men  are  everywhere  cheered 
as  they  march  through  the  streets.  The  whole  center  of  the  city  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  Republic,  whose  flag  flies  from  the  G.  P.  O. 

Commandant-General  P.  H.  Pearse  is  commander  in  chief  of  the 
Army  of  the  Republic  and  is  President  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment. Commandant-General  James  Connolly  is  commanding  the 
Dublin  districts.  Communication  with  the  country  is  largely  cut, 
but  reports  to  hand  show  that  the  country  is  rising,  and  bodies  of 
men  from  Kildare  and  Fingall  have  already  reported  in  Dublin. 

Later  the  same  day  the  following  manifesto  was  issued  to 
the  people  of  the  city  by  President  Pearse: 

THE  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT 

TO  THE 

CITIZENS  OF  DUBLIN 

The  Provisional  Government  of  the  Irish  Republic  salutes  the 
Citizens  of  Dublin  on  the  momentous  occasion  of  the  proclamation 
of  a 

SOVEREIGN  INDEPENDENT  IRISH  STATE 

now  in  course  of  being  established  by  Irishmen  in  arms. 

The  Republican  forces  hold  the  lines  taken  at  12  noon  on  Easter 
Monday,  and  nowhere,  despite  fierce  and  almost  continuous  attacks 
of  the  British  troops,  have  the  lines  been  broken  through.  The  coun- 
try is  rising  in  answer  to  Dublin's  call,  and  the  final  achievement  of 
Ireland's  freedom  is  now,  with  God's  help,  only  a  matter  of  days. 
The  valor,  self-sacrifice,  and  discipline  of  Irish  men  and  women  are 
about  to  win  for  our  country  a  glorious  place  among  the  nations. 

Ireland's  honor  has  already  been  redeemed;  it  remains  to  vindi- 
cate her  wisdom  and  her  self-control. 

All  citizens  of  Dublin  who  believe  in  the  rights  of  their  country 
to  be  free  will  give  their  allegiance  and  their  loyal  help  to  the  Irish 
Republic.  There  is  work  for  everyone  —  for  the  men  in  the  fighting 
line,  and  for  the  women  in  the  provision  of  food  and  first  aid.  Every 
Irishman  and  Irishwoman  worthy  of  the  name  will  come  forward  to 
help  their  common  country  in  this  her  supreme  hour. 

Able-bodied  citizens  can  help  by  building  barricades  in  the  streets 
to  oppose  the  advance  of  the  British  troops.    The  British  troops 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  347 


have  been  firing  on  our  women  and  on  our  Red  Cross.  On  the 
other  hand,  Irish  regiments  in  the  British  army  have  refused  to  act 
against  their  fellow-countrymen. 

The  Provisional  Government  hopes  that  its  supporters  —  which 
means  the  vast  bulk  of  the  people  of  Dublin  —  will  preserve  order 
and  self-restraint.  Such  looting  as  has  already  occurred  has  been 
done  by  hangers-on  of  the  British  Army.  Ireland  must  keep  her 
new  honor  unsmirched. 

We  have  lived  to  see  an  Irish  Republic  proclaimed.  May  we  live 
to  establish  it  firmly,  and  may  our  children  and  our  children's  chil- 
dren enjoy  the  happiness  and  prosperity  which  freedom  will  bring. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Provisional  Government, 

P.  H.  Pearse, 
Commander  in  chief  of  the  Forces  of  the  Irish  Republic 
and  President  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

The  reader  is  thus  enabled  to  compare  the  statements  is- 
sued by  the  opposing  forces.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  the 
preparations  which  were  being  made  by  the  British  to  in- 
close the  Republicans  in  a  cordon  of  fire  and  steel,  and,  on 
the  other,  the  high  hopes  which  animated  the  men  who  had 
risked  all  for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  soul  of  their  country. 


CHAPTER  LIII 


The  Fighting  on  Tuesday 

THE  one  outstanding  fact  that  was  obvious  during  the 
period  ending  at  midnight  on  Tuesday  was  that  the 
Republicans  held  practically  every  point  they  had 
seized  on  the  Monday.  That  the  British  had  been  surprised 
at  the  sudden  turn  of  affairs  may  account  for  this,  at  least  in 
some  measure.  But  the  actual  reason  was  that  the  British, 
in  spite  of  their  vastly  superior  numbers,  had  no  intention 
of  taking  any  chances.  They  went  to  work  in  a  methodical 
and  systematic  manner.  Their  plan  of  campaign  was  a  sim- 
ple one;  they  meant  to  inclose  the  rebels  and  burn  them 
out.  They  meant  to  do  so  with  the  least  possible  loss  to 
themselves  and  with  as  much  loss  to  the  enemy  as  possible. 
All  this  is  strategy  approved  by  military  experts. 

The  righting  on  Tuesday  morning  was  more  or  less  spas- 
modic. There  is  nothing  to  show  that  there  was  anything 
in  the  nature  of  a  general  engagement  during  the  day,  al- 
though sniping  took  place  in  the  vicinity  of  all  the  points 
occupied  by  the  Republicans.  The  only  actual  engagement 
on  record  is  that  which  took  place  at  the  City  Hall  and  the 
offices  of  The  Daily  Express  on  Cork  Hill,  almost  directly 
opposite  the  City  Hall  and  the  entrance  to  Dublin  Castle. 

In  a  previous  chapter  mention  has  been  made  of  the  fact 
that  John  O'Reilly  had  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the 
forces  at  the  City  Hall.  He  was  the  first  to  fall  in  the  new 
assault,  but,  although  his  death  deprived  his  men  of  fine 
leadership,  they  continued  to  make  a  gallant  stand  against 
tremendous  odds. 

The  first  force  of  the  attack  fell  on  the  City  Hall,  and 
came  from  the  upper  end  of  Cork  Hill.  Here  a  number  of 
the  military  established  themselves  on  each  side  of  the  streets 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  349 


and  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses  and  began  a  cross  fire  on  both 
the  City  Hall  and  The  Daily  Express  offices.  So  severe  was 
the  volleying  that  it  became  impossible  for  any  of  the  de- 
fenders to  go  near  to  a  window  in  either  building  without 
risking  instant  death.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  a  vigorous 
defense  was  maintained,  and,  when  the  military  came  from 
their  shelters  and  made  the  first  charge  on  these  two  posi- 
tions, they  were  met  with  so  severe  a  fire  that  they  were 
forced  to  retire. 

There  was  another  period  of  volleying  and  then  another 
charge.  This  was  also  repulsed.  Again  and  still  again  the 
same  tactics  were  tried,  and  charges  were  made  under  cover 
of  fierce  volleying,  but  in  every  case  the  defenders  were  able 
to  hold  their  own  and  force  the  attackers  to  retire.  Dur- 
ing this  fighting  the  British  lost  far  more  heavily  than  the 
Republicans,  who  had  the  advantage  of  their  protected  posi- 
tions. Eventually  the  British  decided  that  they  would  "con- 
solidate" the  positions  they  then  held,  and  wait  for  a  more 
favorable  time  to  force  the  rebels  out  of  the  City  Hall  and 
the  newspaper  offices.  Instead  of  wasting  their  energies  on 
these  two  points  they  extended  their  line  along  Dame  Street 
towards  Trinity  College,  and  thus,  as  stated  in  the  British 
report,  drew  a  line  between  the  two  main  bodies  of  the 
Republican  Army. 

Meanwhile  spasmodic  fighting  was  going  on  at  Boland's 
Mill  in  Ringsend,  where  Commandant  De  Valera  was  mak- 
ing his  position  doubly  strong,  and  at  Stephen's  Green,  where 
the  Republicans  had  been  driven  back  from  Portobello  Bridge 
and  forced  to  retire  along  Harcourt  Street.  At  the  South 
Dublin  Union  Commandant  Ceannt  was  still  holding  his 
position,  although  faced  by  a  greatly  superior  force  of  the 
enemy.  Across  on  the  other  side  of  the  Liffey  Commandant 
Daly  was  in  complete  possession  of  the  Four  Courts  area 
extending  as  far  as  Phibsboro  until  late  in  the  evening, 
when  a  heavy  attack  was  made  on  the  barricade  erected 
across  the  Cabra  Road  at  Doyle's  Corner. 

This  barricade  may  be  said  to  have  constituted  the  north- 


350   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


erly  outpost  of  the  defenses  of  the  city.  It  commanded  the 
North  Circular  Road,  Phibsboro  Road,  and  the  canal  lead- 
ing to  the  Broadstone  Station.  It  occupied  a  position  giv- 
ing to  the  Republicans  command  also  of  Berkeley  Street, 
which  led  down  to  O'Connell  Street,  and  the  lower  end  of  the 
North  Circular  Road  leading  down  to  the  North  Wall.  It 
made  these  roads  impassable  for  the  military  coming  from 
the  Phcenix  Park  and  from  Cabra.  It  was,  therefore,  es- 
sential to  the  British  that  this  obstacle  should  be  removed. 

Towards  evening  on  Tuesday  rain  began  to  fall  in  a  heavy 
shower,  and  the  men  back  of  the  barricade  were  drenched. 
Worse  than  this,  however,  much  of  their  ammunition  was 
also  affected  by  the  rain,  and  was  later  found  to  be  useless. 
While  this  fact  did  not  in  any  material  degree  effect  the  fate 
of  the  barricade,  it  hastened  it. 

Scouts  sent  out  along  the  Cabra  Road  as  far  as  the  rail- 
road bridge  reported,  just  as  dusk  was  falling,  that  a  large 
body  of  the  military  was  approaching  from  the  direction  of 
the  Park.  Sharp-shooters  were  sent  out  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  these  off  as  long  as  possible,  and  another  volleying 
engagement  took  place.  This,  however,  was  of  short  dura- 
tion, as  the  British  advanced  at  the  run,  and  forced  the  little 
band  of  half  a  dozen  men  to  retire,  but  not  until  they  had 
inflicted  some  losses  on  the  enemy. 

W  ith  the  first  approach  to  the  barricade  captured,  there 
was  a  momentary  pause.  The  men  behind  the  barricades 
waited.  Somewhere  out  there  in  the  drenching  downpour 
and  the  darkness  the  enemy  faced  them.  A  rifleman  sent 
a  random  shot  whistling  into  the  void.  Immediately  the 
blackness  was  lighted  by  a  score  of  red  flaming  points  of 
light  and  a  rain  of  bullets  rattled  around  the  barricade.  One 
man  inside  toppled  over,  shot  in  the  head.  Then  there  was 
more  darkness. 

One  can  well  imagine  the  tense  feeling  of  the  men  inside 
the  barricade.  They  knew  that  the  enemy  was  in  force  and 
that  the  position  they  defended  was  of  vital  importance,  even 
as  an  outpost.    They  felt  that  the  military  were  creeping  up 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  351 


closer  and  closer  to  them,  and  that  they  would  have  soon  to 
withstand  the  shock  of  a  bayonet  charge.  Yet,  these  young 
and  untrained  soldiers  stood  to  their  posts  with  all  the 
steadiness  of  veterans. 

Less  than  thirty  minutes  after  the  first  engagement,  and 
when  the  Republicans  were  beginning  to  wonder  if  the 
British  were  afraid  to  face  a  fight,  something  happened. 
There  was  a  sudden  "boom"  away  up  the  Cabra  road,  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  then  the  shriek  of  a  shell.  A  moment  later 
the  defenders  of  the  barricade  heard  the  explosion  of  shrap- 
nel over  their  heads  and  the  rattle  of  the  flying  fragments 
all  around  them. 

This  was  something  more  than  they  had  been  expecting. 
They  knew,  of  course,  that  artillery  might  be  used  against 
them,  but  they  had  not  anticipated  it  at  that  moment.  They 
had  expected  a  charge  from  the  enemy  and  instead  they  were 
confronted  by  something  more  deadly,  something  they  could 
not  fight  with  rifles.  They  could  but  cower  behind  their 
slender  defenses  to  avoid  the  flying  bullets  from  the  bursting 
shells  as  best  they  might.  It  was  obvious  that  the  British 
meant  to  take  no  chances,  and  that  they  were  determined 
to  destroy  the  barricade  as  completely  as  possible. 

One  shell  followed  another  with  almost  monotonous  regu- 
larity. Man  after  man  fell  behind  the  barricade.  Then 
one  of  the  shells  struck  the  barricade  square  in  the  center, 
blowing  a  great  hole  in  it,  and  rendering  it  both  useless  and 
untenable.  In  addition  to  the  wreck  made  of  the  barricade, 
the  shrapnel  burst  high  in  the  air  and  killed  and  wounded  a 
number  of  people  in  houses  near  the  scene  of  the  fight. 

With  the  blowing  out  of  the  barricade  the  men  who  were 
trying  to  defend  it  had  to  retreat.  They  fell  back  towards 
Blacquir  Bridge  and  established  positions  on  both  sides  of 
the  roadway,  covered  by  the  arches  of  the  bridge.  Soon 
afterwards  the  military  advanced  at  a  run  under  cover  of 
their  artillery.  Finding  the  barricade  unoccupied,  they 
halted  and  a  messenger  was  dispatched  to  the  rear.  This 
resulted  in  a  change  in  the  aim  of  the  artillery  gunners,  and 


352   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  shrapnel  was  soon  bursting  over  the  head  of  the  bridge. 
Under  cover  of  this  shower  of  bullets  the  military  made  an- 
other rush  down  the  North  Circular  Road. 

With  several  of  their  men  killed,  it  was  found  impossible 
for  the  defenders  to  hold  the  bridge  against  the  swarms  of 
military  that  charged  down  upon  them.  It  was  a  case  of 
half  a  score  against  three  or  four  hundred.  They  fell  back 
along  the  canal  bank  in  the  direction  of  the  Broadstone.  The 
clay  path  along  the  canal  bank  was  slippery  with  the  rain, 
and  the  lack  of  light  combined  with  this  to  make  the  ad- 
vance of  the  military  all  the  more  difficult  to  observe.  That 
the  Republicans  were  not  subdued  was  made  evident  by 
the  continued  firing  which  marked  their  retreat. 

Those  who  know  the  canal  at  this  point  will  have  no  trouble 
in  picturing  to  themselves  the  fight  that  took  place  that  dismal 
Tuesday  night.  For  half  a  mile  or  more  the  canal  runs 
in  a  straight  line  almost  due  south  from  the  Blacquir  Bridge 
to  the  City  Basin  at  the  Broadstone.  The  only  path  is 
along  the  western  side.  Old  houses  look  down  on  the  slug- 
gish water  from  a  respectable  distance  from  the  path  itself. 
A  few  straggling  gardens  add  to  the  desolateness  of  the 
scene.  Lamps  there  are  none,  from  one  end  of  the  line  to 
the  other,  for  the  canal  at  this  point  had  long  fallen  into  dis- 
use, owing  to  the  competition  of  the  railroad.  The  path  was 
unpaved,  with  the  exception  of  a  narrow  ledge  running  close 
to  and  almost  flush  with  the  water. 

It  was  along  this  path  that  the  fight  was  in  progress  be- 
tween the  Irish  Republicans  and  the  English  soldiers.  Half- 
way along  the  bank  fewer  than  a  dozen  men  lay  on  the 
wet  earth  sending  shot  after  shot  into  the  darkness  in  the 
direction  of  the  bridge.  In  reply  came  volley  after  volley 
and  a  straggling  succession  of  single  shots  that  every  now 
and  then  would  increase  in  intensity  until  the  clay  and  the 
water  were  splashed  into  the  air  as  though  by  a  hailstorm. 
And  all  the  while  the  rain  streamed  from  the  lowering  skies 
in  torrents. 

Then,  once  again,  came  that  "boom"  and  shriek  that  had 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  353 


heralded  the  downfall  of  the  barricade.  The  military  had 
brought  the  guns  to  the  bridge  and  the  rain  of  shrapnel 
again  rattled  over  the  Republicans.  Heavy  artillery  and 
a  regiment  of  soldiers  for  the  purpose  of  subduing  ten  men! 

But  there  was  nothing  left  for  the  Republicans  to  do  but 
to  retire.  The  shrapnel  was  sure  to  find  them  sooner  or 
later,  and  all  of  them  might  be  wiped  out  by  one  straight 
shot.  One  by  one  they  crept  over  the  little  bridge  that  led 
into  Berkeley  Street  and  had  been  erected  for  the  convenience 
of  the  parishioners  of  the  Berkeley  Street  Catholic  Church. 
As  they  made  their  escape,  the  white  circular  clouds  of  the 
bursting  shrapnel  shells  were  forming  in  the  air  over  them, 
and  bullets  were  cutting  into  the  water  on  either  side.  The 
wind  was  rising,  and  the  rain  pelted  down  harder  than  ever. 
With  half  of  their  men  lost  in  the  fighting,  the  ten  survivors 
made  their  way  to  safety.  Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Cabra, 
in  which  a  regiment  of  men  and  a  section  of  artillery  was 
used  to  drive  out  twenty  Republicans. 

The  same  British  force,  finding  the  enemy  routed,  even- 
tually dared  an  advance  along  the  now  deserted  canal  bank. 
Simultaneously  another  force  attacked  along  the  railroad 
line  towards  the  Broadstone.  So  overwhelming  was  this 
force  that  the  rebels  were  forced  to  evacuate  the  station, 
and  formed  their  lines  anew  on  the  road  below  the  viaduct. 
Here  they  withstood  one  attack  after  another,  the  power  of 
the  artillery  being  insufficient  to  drive  them  back. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress,  quietness  reigned  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  General  Post  Office  and  at  the  other 
centers.  There  was,  of  course,  some  sniping,  but  the  British 
were  busily  driving  in  their  cordon  and  were  not  as  yet  in- 
clined to  risk  a  general  encounter.  Troops  were  being  poured 
into  the  city  on  all  sides  and  more  were  on  the  way.  The 
British  could  afford  to  wait  and  take  their  time. 

Thus  Tuesday  passed,  and  the  Irish  Republic  was  two  days 
old.  It  is  a  strange  fact  that  there  were  many  in  the  city 
who  seemed  to  know  little  or  nothing  of  what  was  going  on. 
One  would  be  inclined  to  think  that  Dublin  would  have  been 


354   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


in  a  turmoil  during  those  two  days.  Yet  such  was  not  the 
case.  There  were  those  who  were  apathetic,  as  there  were 
also  those  who  were  tense  with  the  excitement  and  the  wonder 
of  it  all.  An  inkling  of  the  other  attitude  may  be  gleaned 
from  the  words  of  a  writer  who  says  that  he  was  a  witness 
of  the  incidents  he  describes.  While  some  of  his  statements 
must  be  discounted  in  view  of  the  medium  through  which 
he  expressed  his  views,  they  are  not  uninteresting,  and  ad- 
vantage will  be  taken  later  to  refer  to  his  articles.  Writ- 
ing on  the  incidents  of  the  rising,  "M.  M.  O'H"  remarks, 
in  The  Freeman  s  Journal: 

Women  sat  in  the  doorways,  men  lounged  at  the  street  corners,  the 
children  cut  all  sorts  of  capers  up  the  side  streets.  Here  indeed  was 
holiday,  a  few  hundred  yards  off  was  national  tragedy,  and  the  most 
sensational  episode  in  Irish  history  for  a  century.  What  a  queer 
thing  a  city  is  to  be  sure!  .  .  .  Dorset  Street  was  Gardiner's  Street, 
only  more  respectable  and  animated,  but  apparently  as  unmoved  by 
what  was  going  on  down  town.  Could  it  be  that  the  news  had  not 
yet  reached  the  people?  Impossible,  it  seemed  a  long  long  time  since 
I  had  heard  the  glass  crashing  in  Abbey  street.  That  was  the  aspect 
of  the  city  long  after  the  rising  had  begun.  Why  should  one  be  sur- 
prised? In  Leigh  ton's  book  about  the  Paris  Commune  you  will  find 
the  very  selfsame  phenomenon  noted.  Utter  unconcern  in  one  street, 
fierce  and  bloody  tragedy  in  a  street  close  by. 

But  this  was  an  aspect  that  was  soon  to  be  changed.  With 
the  dawn  of  Wednesday  came  events  fraught  with  terror  to 
Dublin,  events  the  like  of  which  had  never  before  occurred 
in  her  long  and  tragic  history;  events  that  threw  a  spell  of 
terror  over  the  people,  and  aroused  a  tense  and  burning 
hatred  that  will  be  carried  on  in  Ireland  as  long  as  there  are 
Irish  fathers  and  mothers  to  teach  and  train  their  children. 


CHAPTER  LIV 


The  Battle  of  Mount  Street  Bridge 

THE  Battle  of  Dublin  may  be  said  to  have  begun  at 
seven    o'clock    on   Wednesday    morning,   April  26, 
1916.    What   had    transpired    during    the  previous 
period  from  the  declaration  of  the  Irish  Republic  at  noon 
on  Monday  morning  were  merely  preliminary  skirmishes.  The 
actual  engagement  began  on  Wednesday  morning. 

The  morning  was  gloriously  fine,  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
wild  rainstorm  of  the  night  before.  The  sun  shone  brightly 
from  a  clear  sky,  and  it  was  obvious  that  the  day  was  going 
to  be  unusually  warm  for  the  time  of  the  year  in  Ireland. 
By  this  time  the  vast  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  were  aware  of  what  was  happening,  and  many  people 
were  around  the  streets  at  an  early  hour.  For  hours  troops 
had  been  arriving  in  the  city,  and  were  taking  up  their 
places  in  the  cordon  that  was  being  woven  around  the  rebels. 
In  addition  to  the  men  and  the  artillery  that  were  summoned 
to  the  assistance  of  the  Empire,  there  also  arrived  the  Helga, 
a  naval  gunboat,  which  pushed  up  the  Liffey  opposite  the 
Custom  House. 

At  seven  o'clock  comparative  silence  reigned  in  the  city, 
and,  therefore,  it  came  as  rather  a  shock  when  the  air  shook 
with  the  sudden  reverberations  of  heavy  artillery.  People 
up  on  the  heights  around  Glasnevin  saw  by  the  rings  of 
smoke  that  rose  into  the  quiet  air  that  the  firing  was  some- 
where on  the  river.  Soon  the  word  was  passed  around  that  a 
British  warship  was  shelling  the  rebels  and  that  the  city  was 
in  flames! 

The  Helga  trained  its  guns  first  of  all  on  Liberty  Hall, 
and  for  over  an  hour  the  shells  shrieked  across  Beresford 
Place  from  the  center  of  the  river.    The  aim  of  the  men  on 


356   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  gunboat  was  bad.  Of  all  the  shots  fired  only  a  very 
small  percentage  struck  Liberty  Hall  itself;  the  rest  either 
spent  their  fury  on  the  street  or  struck  the  property  adjoin- 
ing the  Headquarters  of  the  Citizen  Army.  This  fact  is 
borne  out  not  alone  by  the  statements  of  actual  eyewitnesses, 
but  by  photographs  of  the  scene  of  the  bombardment  taken 
after  the  rising. 

After  between  fifty  and  one  hundred  shells  had  thus  been 
fired  at  Liberty  Hall,  the  British  redcoats  decided  to  push 
their  infantry  forward.  As  the  signal  was  given  for  the  fir- 
ing to  cease  from  the  Helga,  a  volley  of  rifle  bullets  hurtled 
across  from  the  Custom  House,  and,  with  a  ringing  cheer, 
the  British  dashed  forward  to  the  assault.  Across  Beresford 
Place  they  swept,  their  bayonets  flashing  in  the  morning  sun- 
light. Up  to  the  old  door  they  dashed  and  then  to  the  in- 
terior of  the  building,  which  had  been  the  bane  of  the  police 
and  Secret  Service  men  of  Dublin  for  five  years.  The  British 
had  at  last  captured  the  hated  stronghold,  and  no  mercy  was 
to  be  shown  to  those  inside.  But  there  was  a  strange  and 
uncanny  silence  within.  There  were  no  cries  for  mercy  from 
captured  rebels.  There  were  no  rebels  to  capture.  Liberty 
Hall  was  empty,  even  to  the  last  cartridge,  and  had  been  so 
all  the  time  that  the  furious  bombardment  was  in  progress. 
Nothing  remained  for  the  victors  but  a  ruin.  Long  before 
the  rising  a  passage  had  been  dug  underground  that  enabled 
those  inside  the  building  to  make  their  escape  at  any  time 
that  suited  them  without  the  knowledge  of  the  enemy.  While 
the  Helga  was  wasting  shells  that  might  have  been  used  on 
the  Germans,  the  men  of  the  Citizen  Army  who  had  remained 
in  Liberty  Hall  during  the  night  were  over  in  the  General 
Post  Office  partaking  of  a  hearty  breakfast. 

A  few  minutes  after  the  evacuation  of  Liberty  Hall  be- 
came known,  the  booming  of  the  guns  on  board  the  Helga 
began  once  more.  This  time,  however,  the  shells  were 
directed  against  O'Connell  Street.  With  their  guns  elevated, 
the  British  gunners  sent  shell  after  shell  into  the  heart  of 
the  city,  destroying  houses  and  stores.    The  sound  of  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  357 


firing  was  heard  all  over  the  city,  and  the  people  of  Dublin 
knew  that  it  was  now  a  fight  to  a  finish,  and  that  red  ruin 
and  destruction  stared  the  city  in  the  face. 

Apparently  the  fruitlessness  of  this  kind  of  attack  impressed 
itself  on  the  minds  of  the  military  authorities,  for,  after  a 
while,  it  ceased,  but  not  before  several  buildings  had  been 
set  on  fire.  The  actual  damage  done  in  this  bombardment 
to  the  positions  occupied  by  the  Republicans  was  of  no  con- 
sequence, and  the  firing  resulted  merely  in  wanton  damage 
to  property. 

But  other  matters  were  going  on  at  the  same  time.  The 
cordon  was  being  drawn  in  tighter  and  tighter.  On  the  south 
side  the  British  had  succeeded  in  cutting  off  all  communica- 
tions between  the  General  Post  Office  and  Stephen's  Green. 
On  the  north,  the  cordon,  owing  to  the  defeat  of  the  rebels 
at  Cabra,  was  being  drawn  down  through  Dorset  Street  and 
Gardiner  Street  to  Parnell  Street.  It  was  obvious  that  this 
prevented  any  relief  for  the  Volunteers  from  the  north,  un- 
less reinforcements  were  sent  in  in  large  numbers.  Without 
these  reinforcements  the  Republican  headquarters  were  faced 
by  a  wall  of  steel  on  their  northern  flank. 

There  was  another  episode  of  this  day  that  remains  to  be 
chronicled.  This  is  the  engagement  that  will  go  down  in 
history  as  the  Battle  of  Mount  Street,  at  once  the  most 
bloody  and  the  most  effective  of  all  the  engagements  during 
the  Revolution.  More  than  anything  else,  it  had  the  effect 
of  impressing  on  the  minds  of  the  British  the  caliber  of  the 
men  with  whom  they  had  to  deal. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  the  British  military  authori- 
ties were  taking  no  risks  and  were  pouring  troops  into  the 
city  as  fast  as  they  could  arrive  by  train  and  transport.  On 
Tuesday  evening  the  178th  Infantry  Brigade  began  to  ar- 
rive at  Kingstown,  and,  in  accordance  with  their  orders, 
left  the  port  by  road  in  two  columns.  This  was  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  railroad  tracks  had  been  removed  by  the 
rebels  on  Monday.  The  left  column,  consisting  of  the  Fifth 
and  Sixth  battalions  of  the  Sherwood  Foresters,  made  their 


358   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


way  by  the  Stillorgan-Donnybrook  road  and  the  South 
Circular  Road  to  the  military  headquarters  at  the  Royal 
Hospital,  where  it  arrived  without  opposition,  having  avoided 
the  rebels  at  the  South  Dublin  Union.  The  right  column, 
consisting  of  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  battalions  of  the 
Sherwood  Foresters,  made  their  way  by  the  main  route 
through  Ballsbridge,  intending  to  pass  through  Merrion 
Square  and  thence  to  the  Trinity  College  area. 

Shortly  after  three  o'clock,  when  the  head  of  the  Seventh 
Battalion  was  observed  coming  towards  Ringsend,  De  Valera 
passed  the  word  to  his  men  to  prepare  for  the  assault.  The 
rebel  flag  was  run  up  over  the  school  buildings  where  the 
rebels  had  entrenched  themselves,  and  a  warning  shot  was 
sent  over  the  heads  of  the  approaching  soldiers. 

The  Sherwoods,  however,  with  a  firm  belief  in  their  strength, 
dashed  forward,  after  sending  a  volley  to  clear  the  way.  As 
they  neared  the  junction  of  Haddington  Road  and  North- 
umberland Avenue,  they  were  met  by  a  storm  of  hot  lead. 
The  bullets  came  from  each  side  of  the  street,  and  were  aimed 
with  deadly  effect.  Line  after  line  of  the  British  was  mowed 
down,  and  the  entire  battalion  thrown  into  hopeless  confu- 
sion. The  British  halted  in  front  of  the  piled-up  bodies  of 
their  comrades,  and  then  they  broke  and  fled,  in  spite  of  the 
curses  and  exhortations  of  their  officers.  In  this  engage- 
ment the  British  lost  over  one  hundred  dead  and  wounded, 
including  two  officers,  one  of  whom  was  Adjutant-Captain 
Dietrichsen.  Among  the  wounded  was  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fane,  and  a  large  number  of  other  officers  were  put  out  of 
action.  It  was  the  first  smashing  defeat  of  the  British.  A 
percentage  of  an  entire  battalion  had  been  wiped  out,  and 
the  advance  on  Trinity  College  stayed. 

It  was  two  hours  before  the  British  decided  to  make  an- 
other advance.  This  time  they  had  the  assistance  of  bomb- 
ing parties,  led  by  Captain  Jeffares,  of  the  Bombing  School 
at  Elm  Park,  an  officer  who  was  ranked  as  one  of  the  fore- 
most experts  in  the  world  in  this  line.  With  considerably 
more  caution  the  British  now  made  their  advance.    As  they 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  359 


were  starting  on  their  mission,  orders  were  received  from  the 
Royal  Hospital  that  they  were  to  win  their  way  through  at 
any  cost.  Thus  spurred  on,  and  after  a  deadly  volleying 
and  under  cover  of  the  bombs  and  rifle  fire,  the  Foresters 
made  their  charge.  It  was  evident  that  they  were  smarting 
from  the  defeat  and  the  disgrace  of  the  engagement  two 
hours  before,  and  were  determined  to  wipe  out  both.  They 
came  on  at  the  double,  cheering  as  they  charged,  and  made 
their  way  right  up  to  the  end  of  the  bridge  head.  But  a 
hail  of  bullets  again  met  them.  From  every  side,  in  spite  of 
the  bombs  and  counter-volleying,  the  Republicans  poured 
lead  into  the  ranks  of  the  advancing  English.  It  was  hot 
and  bloody  work;  it  was  war  in  real  and  actual  earnest. 
Wave  after  wave  of  men  dashed  at  the  bridge  head,  and 
wave  after  wave  of  men  was  swept  out  of  existence.  A  wall 
of  dead  and  dying  was  piled  up  and  formed  an  additional 
barricade,  and  it  became  the  horrid  work  of  the  bombing 
parties  to  blast  their  way  through  this  wall  of  mangled  flesh 
and  bone  to  get  to  the  Republicans.  Before  this  was  ac- 
complished, many  hundreds  of  the  British  had  perished, 
and  the  Seventh  Battalion  of  the  Sherwood  Foresters  was 
practically  exterminated. 

It  was  only  after  six  hours  of  the  bloodiest  and  most 
desperate  fighting  that  the  British,  who  had  suffered  enor- 
mous losses  in  killed  and  wounded,  were  able  to  drive  the 
Irish  from  their  positions.  This  they  did  with  the  aid  of 
bombs  and  machine  guns,  but  here  again  they  found  that  a 
passage  had  been  constructed  underground,  and  that  the 
rebels  had  escaped.  All  they  found,  when  they  at  length 
broke  through  and  into  the  positions  held  by  the  Republi- 
cans, were  half  a  dozen  wounded  men.  The  actual  losses  to 
the  Irish  were  insignificant,  and  were  scarcely  in  the  propor- 
tion of  one  to  a  hundred  of  the  enemy,  of  whom  it  was 
calculated  that  well  over  fifty  per  cent  fell  during  the  several 
hours  of  the  repeated  assaults.  So  severe  were  the  losses 
that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  rebel  positions  had  been 
evacuated,  the  remnant  of  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  bat- 


360   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


talions  of  the  Foresters  did  not  dare  to  push  on  to  Trinity 
that  night,  notwithstanding  the  positive  orders  they  had  re- 
ceived. They  waited  till  close  on  midnight  when  they  were 
reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  the  South  Staffordshire  Regiment. 
The  new  arrivals  occupied  the  positions  that  the  Foresters 
had  won,  and  thus  allowed  the  weary  remnant  of  the  Seventh 
and  Eighth  battalions  to  retire. 

The  following  is  the  official  British  account  of  the  battle, 
written  by  General  Maxwell.  In  his  report  he  has  made 
more  than  one  misstatement,  and  has  also  ridiculously  under- 
estimated the  number  of  the  British  casualties: 

At  about  5 :  30  p.m.  orders  were  received  (by  the  officers  at  Mount 
Street)  that  the  advance  to  Trinity  College  was  to  be  pushed  forward  at 
all  costs,  and  therefore  at  about  eight  p.m.,  after  careful  arrangements, 
the  whole  column,  accompanied  by  bombing  parties,  attacked  the 
schools  and  houses  where  the  chief  opposition  lay,  the  battalions 
charging  in  successive  waves,  carrying  all  before  them,  but,  I  regret 
to  say,  suffered  severe  casualties  in  doing  so. 

Four  officers  were  killed,  14  were  wounded,  and  of  other  ranks 
216  were  killed  and  wounded. 

In  views  of  the  opposition  met  with,  it  was  not  deemed  advisable  to 
push  on  to  Trinity  College  that  night,  so,  at  11  p.m.  the  5th  South 
Staffordshire  Regiment,  from  the  176th  Infantry  Brigade,  reinforced 
this  column,  and  by  occupying  the  positions  gained  allowed  the  two 
battalions  Sherwood  Foresters  to  be  concentrated  at  Ballsbridge. 

Before  midnight  the  entire  city  was  ringing  with  the  ex- 
ploit of  the  Republican  forces.  This  victory  instilled  new 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  at  the  same  time  had  the  effect 
of  bringing  to  the  British  a  realization  of  the  task  to  which 
they  had  set  themselves. 

That  night,  as  the  immense  crowds  gathered  far  outside 
the  military  cordon  that  surrounded  O'Connell  Street,  they 
saw  an  angry  red  glare  in  the  sky  over  the  city.  It  was  the 
reflection  of  the  fires  that  were  eating  into  the  very  vitals 
of  the  city. 


CHAPTER  LV 


The  High  Flame  of  Courage 

THAT  night  Dublin  burned.  Dense  clouds  of  thick 
smoke,  vivid  sheets  of  red  and  scarlet  flame,  showed 
where  the  Irish  Republic  was  being  born  in  fire  and 
blood.  And  through  the  smoke  and  flame  was  heard  the 
dull  boom  of  the  artillery,  the  rattle  of  the  machine  guns,  and 
the  spitting  of  the  rifles.  Guns  were  booming  from  the 
south  side  of  the  Liffey,  from  the  gunboat  Helga,  and  from 
Trinity  College.  The  battle  of  Dublin  was  in  full  swing. 
O'Connell  Street  was  an  inferno.  With  buildings  blazing 
on  each  side  of  the  street  and  heavy  smoke  rolling  above, 
with  bullets  zipping  from  the  pavement  like  hail,  death 
stalked  abroad  and  commanded  every  inch  of  this  section. 
It  is  difficult  to  depict  the  actual  conditions  that  prevailed 
in  Dublin  that  Wednesday  night  and  the  two  nights  that 
followed.  Those  who  have  witnessed  big  conflagrations  can 
gain  some  impression  of  the  picture  by  imagining  what  a  fire 
taking  in  whole  blocks  must  have  looked  like.  "M.  M.  O'H," 
the  writer  in  The  Freeman's  Journal,  who  witnessed  the  fires 
from  a  respectful  distance,  describes  them  as  follows: 

The  memory  of  the  great  fires  will  probably  be  as  long  as  any  of 
the  memories  of  the  week.  Night  after  night  we  stood  out  in  the 
suburbs  looking  towards  the  city  —  the  doomed  city,  as  we  all 
thought.  The  awful  red  glare  fixed  and  held  one's  eyes.  It  was 
impossible  to  look  away.  Vast  surly  masses  of  smoke  went  up  and 
after  them  sprang  the  flames,  and  then  the  whole  sky  got  bloody  and 
the  red  spread  in  circles  until  another  gust  of  smoke  belched  up,  to 
be  followed  by  another  sickening  glare  of  fire.  Then  a  huge  red 
blotch  settled  over  some  post,  and  we  speculated  whether  it  was  this 
street  or  that,  this  place  or  another.  First  the  seething  was  on  the 
east,  then  to  the  west,  now  distant,  then  near,  until  finally  all  specu- 


362   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


lation  ceased,  for  the  whole  city  was  like  a  horrid  cauldron,  glowing 
with  a  deep  deep  red.  Will  it  never  stop?  The  whole  town  will  be 
burned  up.  How  it  spreads!  That's  O'Connell  Street,  and  that's 
King's  Inns  for  certain.  The  whole  heart  of  Dublin  is  afire.  Noth- 
ing can  stop  it.  The  slums  will  go  like  matchwood.  Thousands  will 
be  burned  to  death.  Awful  hours  these  were,  and  ever  and  always 
the  crack  of  the  rifle  as  some  sniper  kept  at  his  deadly  task,  heed- 
less of  the  havoc  that  enveloped  the  poor  helpless  city. 

Through  the  long  hours  of  the  night  the  gallant  men  and 
women  of  the  Republic  fought  against  enormous  odds,  and 
held  their  own.  Through  the  fire  and  the  shot  and  shell, 
through  the  blazing  streets  and  the  air  that  burned  with  the 
flying  bullets,  they  never  wavered.  As  the  hours  wore  on 
toilfully  and  dreadfully  towards  the  dawn  of  the  fourth  day 
of  the  Republic,  the  intensity  of  the  battle  increased.  All 
over  the  city  it  wras  the  same.  At  the  South  Dublin  Union, 
at  Boland's  Mills,  at  the  Four  Courts,  at  a  hundred  and  one 
minor  points  that  the  Republicans  had  captured,  the  shot 
and  shell  was  poured  in  from  thousands  of  weapons.  But 
it  was  in  the  O'Connell  Street  area  that  the  fighting  was 
fiercest,  the  firing  heaviest,  and  the  fires  the  most  appalling. 
The  British  had  drawn  their  cordon  to  cover  both  ends  of 
the  street,  with  the  result  that  a  cross  fire  of  bullets  from 
rifles  and  machine  guns  whistled  incessantly  through  the 
broad  expanse  of  that  thoroughfare.  It  was  during  this 
period  and  from  this  time  to  the  end  of  the  fighting  that 
some  of  the  most  remarkable  feats  of  courage  of  the  Revolu- 
tion took  place. 

The  women,  and  especially  those  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan 
were  on  active  service  with  the  men.  They  acted  as  nurses, 
and  in  this  capacity  went  fearlessly  into  the  firing  line  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty.  They  acted  as  messengers,  and 
showed  an  entire  disregard  of  danger.  They  acted  as  as- 
sistants to  the  men  on  the  firing  line,  filling  their  rifles  for 
them  and  carrying  ammunition  from  one  point  to  another. 
They  acted  as  soldiers,  taking  their  places  in  the  firing  line 
by  the  side  of  the  men,  firing  with  wonderfully  good  aim, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  363 


and  acting  with  the  same  cool  courage  that  characterized 
their  every  action. 

Men  who  were  in  the  actual  fighting,  who  took  part  in  the 
defense  of  the  Post  Office,  and  who  afterwards  escaped  to 
the  United  States,  bear  eloquent  testimony  of  the  part  played 
by  the  women.  They  were  young  women  and  old  women, 
mere  slips  of  girls  and  mothers  with  sons  and  daughters,  but 
all  played  the  same  noble  part.  Few  of  their  names  are  yet 
known,  but  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  even.-  one  of  the 
women  prisoners  who  later  were  sent  into  exile  were  among 
the  number  of  those  who  fought  for  Ireland.  There  were 
women,  too,  who  died  for  Ireland  during  Easter  week,  women 
who  were  shot  on  the  firing  line,  girls  who  were  killed  while 
taking  messages  from  one  point  to  another,  and  in  more  in- 
stances than  one,  as  will  later  be  shown.  Irish  women  who 
were  shot  dead  by  the  gallant  British  under  circumstances 
that  would  have  brought  the  blush  of  shame  to  the  cheek  of  a 
savage. 

There  is  on  record,  and  it  is  mentioned  as  merely  one  in- 
stance out  of  many,  the  feat  accomplished  by  a  girl  on  this 
fateful  Thursday.  One  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan  messengers, 
a  young  girl,  was  detailed  to  take  a  message  from  Boland's 
Mills  to  the  Post  Office.  She  managed  to  get  over  the  Butt 
Bridge  in  safety  and  then  made  her  way  into  Abbey  Street 
past  Liberty  Hall.  At  this  point  she  was  halted  by  a  British 
officer,  but  broke  away  from  him  and  ran  towards  O'Connell 
Street.  Immediately  the  officer  ordered  his  men  to  fire  a 
volley  after  her,  but  she  escaped.  In  O'Connell  Street  the 
bullets  swept  the  roadway  and  the  sidewalks,  and  it  seemed 
impossible  for  even  a  cat  to  cross  the  street  alive.  But  this 
dauntless  girl  crossed  in  safety  and  delivered  her  message. 

In  this  connection  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  quote  a 
statement  sent  to  the  American  Newspapers  by  the  London 
Central  News  Association,  more  particularly  as  it  gives 
honor  to  the  priests  of  Dublin  who  were  in  the  city  during 
the  rising.  On  their  mission  of  mercy,  they  faced  every 
danger  and  went  into  the  thick  of  the  fighting.    The  story 


364   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


is  that  of  a  Red  Cross  nurse  who  was  an  eyewitness  of  the 
events  she  describes  and  was  passed  by  the  British  censor: 

The  Irish  Rebellion  is  remarkable  for  one  fact  not,  so  far,  recog- 
nized in  England  —  namely,  the  very  prominent  part  taken  in  it 
by  Irish  women  and  girls. 

On  Easter  Sunday,  which  was  the  day  first  appointed  for  the  Irish 
Volunteer  maneuvers,  and  for  which  all  the  men  were  mobilized,  the 
women  in  the  movement  were  also  mobilized  and  ordered  to  bring 
rations  for  a  certain  period.  It  was  only  at  the  last  moment,  and 
for  sufficiently  dramatic  reasons,  that  the  mobilization  of  both  men 
and  women  was  canceled.  These  Irishwomen,  who  did  their  work 
with  a  cool  and  reckless  courage,  unsurpassed  by  any  man,  were  in 
the  firing  line  from  the  first  to  the  last  day  of  the  Rebellion.  They 
were  women  of  all  ranks,  from  titled  ladies  to  shop  assistants,  and 
they  worked  on  terms  of  easy  equality,  caring  nothing  apparently 
but  for  the  success  of  the  movement. 

Many  of  the  women  were  snipers,  and  both  in  the  Post  Office 
and  in  the  Imperial  Hotel  the  present  writer,  who  was  a  Red  Cross 
nurse,  saw  women  on  guard  with  rifles,  relieving  worn  out  Vol- 
unteers. 

Cumann  na  mBan  girls  did  practically  all  the  dispatch  carrying; 
some  of  them  were  killed,  but  none  of  them  returned  unsuccessful. 
That  was  a  point  of  honor  with  them  —  to  succeed  or  be  killed.  On 
one  occasion  in  O'Connell  Street  I  heard  a  Volunteer  captain  call  for 
volunteers  to  take  a  dispatch  to  Commandant  James  Connolly,  under 
heavy  machine-gun  fire.  Every  man  and  woman  present  sprang 
forward,  and  he  chose  a  young  Dublin  woman,  a  well-known  writer, 
whose  relations  hold  big  Crown  appointments,  and  whom  I  had  last 
seen  dancing  with  an  aide-de-camp  at  a  famous  Dublin  ball.  This 
girl  had  taken  an  extraordinarily  daring  part  in  the  insurrection. 
She  shook  hands  now  with  her  commander  and  stepped  coolly  out 
amid  a  perfect  cross-rain  of  bullets  from  Trinity  College  and  from 
the  Rotunda  side  of  O'Connell  Street.  She  reached  the  Post  Office 
in  safety,  and  I  saw  Count  Plunkett's  son,  who  was  the  officer  on 
guard,  and  who  has  since  been  shot,  come  to  the  front  door  of  the 
Post  Office  and  wish  her  good  luck  as  he  shook  hands  with  her  before 
she  made  her  reckless  dash  to  take  Connolly's  dispatch  back  to  their 
own  headquarters. 

This  was  only  one  instance,  but  typical  of  a  hundred  that  I  saw 
of  the  part  played  by  women  during  the  fighting  week.    They  did 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  365 


Red  Cross  work  —  I  saw  them  going  out  under  the  deadliest  fire  to 
bring  in  wounded  Volunteers  —  they  cooked,  catered,  and  brought  in 
supplies;  they  took  food  to  men  under  fire  at  barricades;  they 
visited  every  Volunteer's  home  to  tell  his  people  of  his  progress.  I 
never  imagined  that  such  an  organization  of  determined  fighting 
women  could  exist  in  the  British  Isles.  These  women  could  throw 
hand  grenades,  they  understood  tne  use  of  bombs  —  in  fact  they 
seemed  to  understand  as  much  of  the  business  of  warfare  as  their 
men.  .  .  . 

Another  feature  of  the  fighting  little  commented  on  was  the  ex- 
traordinary impression  made  on  the  Volunteers  by  the  presence  of  their 
priests,  who  rushed  to  the  buildings  held  by  the  Volunteers  under 
the  heaviest  fire.  It  was  no  unusual  sight  to  see  a  body  of  bareheaded 
Volunteers,  with  the  Cumann  na  mBan  girls  by  their  sides,  their 
rifles  in  their  hands,  kneeling  in  the  firing  line  while  their  priest 
gave  them  the  last  battle-freed  absolution  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 

Ambulance  and  first-aid  work  was  carried  out  under  extraordinary 
difficulties  during  the  rising.  During  the  worst  fighting  days  the 
rescue  of  the  wounded  could  only  be  effected  at  the  risk  of  the  res- 
cuers' lives.  On  Easter  Wednesday  the  hospitals  refused  to  send 
out  more  ambulances,  and  many  wounded  and  dead  lay  in  the  streets 
for  days  unattended.  On  Saturday  the  body  of  a  man  killed  on 
Tuesday  still  lay  in  Marlborough  Street. 

The  writer  in  the  Freeman  s  Journal  thus  gives  some 
first-hand  impressions  of  the  events  of  Thursday: 

By  Thursday  the  military  cordon  was  complete  and  the  fighting 
within  it  was  practically  at  close  quarters,  for  rival  snipers  were 
potting  at  one  another  from  all  over  the  city,  apart  from  the  attack 
and  defense  of  the  strongholds  held  by  the  main  bodies  of  the  in- 
surgents, whose  original  muster  of  eight  hundred  had  considerably 
increased.  The  air  was  alive  with  vicious  sounds.  One  could  distin- 
guish the  service  ammunition  from  the  ammunition  used  by  the 
insurgents,  and  people  got  so  used  to  the  difference  that  it  was  no 
unusual  thing  to  hear  it  said  "That's  the  rebels,"  "That's  the 
military"  as  volley  answered  volley.  But  no  one  could  now  go  next 
or  near  the  struggle  except  at  imminent  danger  to  his  life.  So 
viciously  did  the  fighting  sound  that  no  one  without  the  cordon  dis- 
played the  slightest  desire  to  get  inside.    But  once  again,  like  the 


366   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


moth  to  the  candle,  I  wanted  to  get  closer  to  the  trouble.  So  mak- 
ing a  detour  with  a  friend,  this  time  towards  Kingsbridge,  I  found 
that  it  was  possible  about  three  o'clock  in  the  day  to  get  down  to- 
wards Prussia  Street  and  Stoneybatter.  The  same  again!  Just  as 
we  were  getting  into  town,  a  sudden  boom  brought  us  to  a  stand- 
still. And  then  such  rifle  firing  as  had  not  yet  been  heard.  I  have 
never  heard  such  a  fearful  racket.  Boom  again.  Again  fierce  rifle 
firing,  with  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  sheer  desperation  in  it.  Boom 
again.  Again  a  frightening  fusillade.  Boom  again.  Again  volley 
upon  volley.  Pandemonium  was  loose  in  Stoneybatter  and  along 
the  quays.  My  friend  and  myself  were  pinned  to  the  ground. 
Another  few  minutes  and,  unless  something  or  someone  had  stopped 
us,  we  would  have  been  in  the  center  of  it.  It  must  have  been  a 
bitter  battle,  but  we  were  content  to  stand  and  listen  until,  as  sud- 
denly as  it  began,  silence  absolute  and  complete  brought  us  to  our 
senses.  I  don't  know  which  was  the  more  startling  —  the  sudden 
boom  or  the  sudden  silence.  By  this  time  the  military  had  got  down 
to  Frederick  Street  and  Rutland  Square  and  were  raking  O'Connell 
Street  from  the  north,  while  their  comrades  at  the  other  end  of  the 
Liffey  were  raking  it  from  the  south.  .  .  .  Needless  to  say  the  great 
thoroughfare,  raked  up  and  down  and  commanded  by  troops  in 
Amiens  Street  as  well,  was  a  place  where  it  might  well  be  imagined 
no  human  being  could  live.  A  dead  horse  lay  near  Nelson's  Pillar 
since  Monday.  The  block  of  buildings  at  the  north  corner  of  Earl 
Street  was  on  fire  since  Tuesday.  Now  a  hurricane  of  lead  swept 
the  street  from  end  to  end.  Military  snipers,  too,  were  on  vantage 
points  around.  I  had  spoken  to  a  man  who  went  through  the  street 
lying  on  the  floor  of  an  ambulance,  while  the  relentless  rain  of  bul- 
lets was  pouring  in.  He  could  only  give  to  it  the  old  weather- 
beaten  description  of  "Hell."  "It  was  hell,"  he  said;  "the  bullets 
were  hopping  everywhere.  It  was  one  continuous  whizz."  A  poor 
fellow,  who  must  have  crept  out  of  some  cellar  and  who  was  evi- 
dently under  the  influence  of  drink,  came  into  this  inferno  waving 
his  hat,  and  proclaiming  that  he  was  a  Dublin  Fusilier.  He  was 
riddled.  The  Imperial  Hotel  as  well  as  the  General  Post  Office  was 
defended  by  the  Insurgents.  It  became  necessary  to  send  food 
across  to  the  hotel.  A  volunteer  was  forthcoming.  He  slung  the 
bag  of  food  across  his  shoulder  and  started  across  the  street.  Through 
air  alive  with  hot  lead,  over  pavements  from  which  the  bullets 
hopped  like  hailstones,  he  shot  over  the  broad  street.    Not  a  hair 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  367 


of  his  head  was  injured.  The  story  should  erase  the  word  "  despair  " 
from  the  dictionary. 

The  intensity  of  the  firing  at  Stoneybatter  referred  to  in 
the  above  quotation  was  part  of  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
features  of  the  rebellion.  It  was  in  this  district  and  almost 
in  a  direct  line  with  the  Four  Courts  that  the  Linen  Hall 
Barracks  was  situated.  Shortly  after  two  o'clock  on  Thurs- 
day the  rebels  decided  to  make  an  attack  on  this  fortress, 
from  which  a  deadly  sniping  was  being  kept  up.  A  body  of 
Republicans  was  made  up,  led  by  Edward  Daly  himself, 
and,  comprising  less  than  one  hundred  men,  started  out  at 
three  o'clock.  On  their  march  they  met  a  detachment  of  the 
British  on  their  way  to  the  barracks.  The  enemy  had  two 
machine  guns  with  them,  and  at  once  opened  fire  on  the 
Republicans.  This  was  not  returned  to  any  extent,  as  Daly 
led  his  men  to  the  charge  without  a  second's  hesitation  and 
rushed  the  British,  capturing  the  guns  and  a  quantity  of 
ammunition. 

The  attack  on  the  barracks  was  then  commenced.  The 
defenders  of  the  barracks  were  well  supplied  with  rifles  and 
ammunition,  and  had  also  two  pieces  of  artillery,  of  which 
they  made  the  utmost  use.  They  had  one  machine  gun  and 
the  battle  lasted  for  close  on  an  hour,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  the  lower  portion  of  the  building  caught  fire.  This  was 
extinguished  by  the  defenders,  but  the  Irish  charged  at  the 
same  moment  and  scaled  the  walls.  During  a  fierce  hand  to 
hand  fight  the  fire  broke  out  anew.  The  rebels  captured  im- 
portant stores  after  they  had  subdued  the  defenders,  but  they 
were  unable  to  cope  with  the  fire.  The  barracks  were  burned 
to  the  ground,  leaving  only  the  bare  walls  standing.  Thus 
at  least  one  of  these  strongholds  of  the  aliens  was  destroyed 
during  Easter  Week. 

Thursday  came  to  a  close  with  the  fires  still  burning  and 
the  bullets  flying  thicker  than  ever.  During  the  day  further 
British  troops  arrived  on  the  scene  to  reinforce  the  enemy. 
The  panic  of  the  British  was  increasing  rather  than  decreas- 


368   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


ing.  The  most  alarming  rumors  were  in  circulation  through- 
out the  city  of  disasters  to  British  troops  in  other  parts  of 
the  country,  of  German  landings  and  of  landings  of  Irish 
from  America.  And  it  was  while  these  stories  were  being 
passed  from  one  soldier  to  another  that  the  news  began  to 
leak  out  of  one  of  the  most  dastardly  murders  that  have  ever 
stained  the  long  and  bloody  record  of  the  British  in  Ireland. 


CHAPTER  LVI 


The  Murder  of  Sheehy-Skeffington 

IT  was  the  writer's  privilege  to  know  Francis  Sheehy- 
Skeffington  as  an  intimate  friend,  to  obtain  a  close 
knowledge  both  of  his  views  and  his  ideals  during  a 
lengthy  residence  in  Dublin,  and  to  learn  from  him  a  great 
deal  concerning  actual  conditions  in  Ireland,  during  the  visit 
he  paid  to  America  after  he  had  been  imprisoned  by  the 
English  for  his  pacifist  views. 

He  was  a  man  of  simple  tastes,  with  sincere  motives  and 
divine  courage.  He  feared  neither  the  scorn  of  his  enemies 
nor  the  criticism  of  his  friends.  When  he  had  made  up  his 
mind,  after  due  consideration,  that  any  particular  course  of 
action  was  the  right  one,  he  would  follow  out  that  line  of 
action  to  the  end.  He  was  of  abundant  energy  and  the  keen- 
est intellect.  He  held  an  enduring  place  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who  knew  him.  His  quick  and  ready  sympathy  were 
ever  on  the  side  of  the  weaker  or  the  oppressed,  and  he 
spared  no  effort  to  assist  them  to  the  best  of  his  power. 

He  was  not  a  Sinn  Feiner,  nor  was  he  associated  in  any 
way  with  the  physical  force  movement.  He  did  not  believe 
in  physical  force  even  as  a  means  of  gaining  the  independence 
of  Ireland.  He  was  a  believer  in  peaceful  propaganda,  car- 
ried on  by  constitutional  means.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
Rebellion  he  started  to  organize  a  volunteer  police  force  to 
protect  the  citizens  of  Dublin.  It  was  while  he  was  carry- 
ing on  this  work  that  he  met  his  tragic  fate. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  Rebellion,  he  had  already  made 
some  progress  with  his  work.  During  that  day  he  was  ar- 
rested by  the  military  authorities  and  the  following  day, 
together  with  two  other  men,  he  was  taken  out  in  Porto- 
bello  Barracks  yard  and  shot.    His  death  was  not  ins  tan- 


370   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


taneous.  He  crawled  around  the  yard  in  a  dying  condition 
for  thirty  minutes  after  the  volley  had  been  fired,  a  fact 
that  the  British  have  tried  to  suppress.  A  second  and  then 
a  third  volley  was  fired  into  his  body,  thus  ending  his  life. 

His  murderer,  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst,  tried  to  forge 
documents  to  show  that  Skeffington  was  implicated  in  the 
rising  and  was  one  of  the  ringleaders.  He  grossly  insulted 
and  lied  to  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington,  when  the  widow,  who 
did  not  then  know  of  the  death  of  her  husband,  made  in- 
quiries as  to  his  whereabouts.  After  a  farcical  court-martial, 
this  man  was  adjudged  guilty  but  insane,  and  sentenced  to 
be  confined  in  a  criminal  lunatic  asylum  "during  His  Maj- 
esty's pleasure."  He  was  subsequently  released.  The  out- 
cry made  by  Mrs.  Skeffington  and  by  the  Irish  in  America 
forced  the  British  to  appoint,  several  months  after  the 
murder,  a  commission  of  inquiry. 

Lest  anyone  doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  facts  set  forth, 
the  members  of  the  Commission,  appointed  by  the  English 
Government,  will  be  allowed  to  tell  the  whole  gruesome  tale 
in  their  own  official  report.  This  document,  one  of  the  most 
amazing  in  the  history  of  any  country,  follows: 

It  was  conceded  on  all  hands  before  us  that  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffing- 
ton had  no  connection  with  the  Rebellion;  his  views  were  opposed 
to  the  use  of  physical  force;  and  it  appears  that  he  had  been  engaged 
that  afternoon  in  making  some  public  appeal  to  prevent  looting  and 
the  like.  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington  gave  evidence  of  this  fact,  and 
her  evidence  is  confirmed  by  a  document  which  was  found  on  him 
when  he  was  searched  and  which  contained  a  form  of  membership 
of  a  proposed  civic  organization  to  check  looting.  As  he  approached 
Portobello  Bridge  he  was  followed  by  a  crowd,  some  of  the  members 
of  which  were  shouting  out  his  name. 

It  was  about  dusk,  and  the  disturbance  had  now  continued  for 
some  thirty  hours.  A  young  officer  named  Lieutenant  M.  C.  Morris, 
who  was  attached  to  the  3d  Battalion  of  the  Royal  Irish  Rifles  at 
Portobello  Barracks,  had  taken  up  duty  an  hour  before  in  command 
of  a  picket  at  Portobello  Bridge,  occupying  premises  at  the  corner 
known  as  Davy's  public  house.  His  orders  were  to  do  his  utmost  to 
avoid  conflict  but  to  keep  the  roadway  clear  as  far  as  possible. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  371 


Lieutenant  Morris  heard  people  in  the  street  shouting  out  Mr. 
Sheehy-Skeffington's  name,  and  he  determined  to  detain  him  and 
send  him  to  the  barracks.  Lieutenant  Morris  did  not  himself  leave 
his  post  for  many  hours  afterwards.  He  sent  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffing- 
ton  under  an  escort  of  two  men  to  the  barracks. 

Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington  was  searched  by  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst.  This  gentleman  was  an  officer  of  sixteen  years'  service.  He 
belonged  to  the  Royal  Irish  Rifles,  and  had  considerable  experience 
of  warfare.  He  had  been  with  his  battalion  of  the  regiment  at  the 
front  when  he  was  seriously  wounded  and  invalided  home.  At  the 
time  of  the  Dublin  disturbances  he  was  attached  to  the  3d  Bat- 
talion at  Portobello  Barracks.  Having  searched  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffing- 
ton, Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  about  9  o'clock  handed  over  to  the 
Adjutant  what  he  had  found  upon  him.  The  Adjutant  made  copies 
of  these  documents  and  produced  them  before  us;  they  were  few 
in  number,  and  none  of  them  had  anything  to  do  with  the  disturb- 
ances save  the  document  already  referred  to,  which  was  a  draft 
form  of  membership  for  a  civic  guard.  There  was  nothing  of  an 
incriminatory  nature  found  on  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington.  When  we 
come  to  deal  with  the  cases  of  Mr.  Dickson  and  Mr.  Mclntyre  it 
will  again  be  seen  that  nothing  of  consequence  was  found  upon 
them,  and  the  absence  of  compromising  documents  in  all  three  cases 
is,  in  the  light  of  a  report  subsequently  made  by  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst, a  fact  of  considerable  importance. 

Later,  on  the  same  evening,  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  went  out 
of  the  barracks  in  command  of  a  party  under  orders  to  enter  and 
occupy  premises  at  the  corner  of  Camden  Street  and  Harrington 
Street,  occupied  by  Mr.  James  Kelly  for  the  purposes  of  his  tobacco 
business.  Mr.  Kelly  is  an  Alderman  of  the  City  and  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace,  and  had  recently  held  the  office  of  High  Sheriff  of  the 
City.  There  is  no  question  that  the  suspicion  entertained  against 
Mr.  Kelly's  loyalty  was  due  to  a  misunderstanding,  and  that  Mr. 
Kelly  was,  in  fact,  quite  innocent  of  any  connection  with  the  out- 
break. Mr.  Kelly's  premises  are  some  300  yards  on  the  city  side  of 
Portobello  Bridge,  and  the  route  for  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst's 
party  therefore  lay  from  the  main  gate  of  the  barracks  along  the 
lane  leading  into  the  Rathmines  Road,  and  then  along  the  Rath- 
mines  Road  over  Portobello  Bridge  past  Davy's  public  house. 

Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  adopted  the  extraordinary,  and  indeed 
almost  meaningless,  course  of  taking  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington  with 


372   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


him  as  a  "hostage."  He  had  no  right  to  take  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffing- 
ton  out  of  the  custody  of  the  guard  for  this  or  any  other  purpose,  and 
he  asked  no  one's  leave  to  do  so.  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst's  party 
consisted  of  a  junior  officer  (Second  Lieutenant  Leslie  Wilson)  and 
about  forty  men.  Before  they  left  the  barracks  Mr.  Sheehy- 
Skeffington's  hands  were  tied  behind  his  back,  and  Captain 
Bowen-Colthurst  called  upon  him  to  say  his  prayers.  Upon  Mr. 
Sheehy-Skeffington  refusing  to  do  so,  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  or- 
dered the  men  of  his  party  to  take  their  hats  off  and  himself  uttered 
a  prayer,  the  words  of  it,  according  to  Lieutenant  Wilson's  evidence 
being:  "O  Lord  God,  if  it  shall  please  Thee  to  take  away  the  life 
of  this  man,  forgive  him  for  Christ's  sake." 

The  party  proceeded  from  the  main  gate  of  the  barracks  to  the 
turning  into  the  Rathmines  Road,  where  a  shooting  incident  oc- 
curred which  we  thought  it  right  to  investigate,  since  Mr.  Sheehy- 
Skeffington  was  present  and  since  it  was  suggested  (though  not 
proved)  that  it  might  have  led  to  some  protest  on  his  part,  or  might 
have  had  some  bearing  upon  his  subsequent  treatment.  We  find 
it  impossible  to  reconcile  all  the  testimony  given  on  this  matter,  but 
it  was  established  that  a  youth  named  Coade  with  a  friend  named 
Laurence  Byrne  were  in  the  Rathmines  Road  when  Captain  Bowen- 
Colthurst's  party  came  by.  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  asked  what 
business  they  had  to  be  in  the  road  at  that  hour,  and  warned  them 
that  martial  law  had  been  proclaimed.  The  evidence  as  to  what  next 
happened  is  not  consistent,  but  there  is  no  suggestion  that  either  of 
the  yovng  men  showed  any  violence,  and  it  was  clearly  established 
before  us  that  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  shot  young  Coade,  who  fell 
mortally  wounded  and  was  subsequently  taken  by  an  ambulance  to 
the  hospital  in  the  barracks.  Lieutenant  Leslie  Wilson  testified  that 
Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  fired  with  a  rifle,  but  two  civilian  wit- 
nesses —  whose  good  faith  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  —  asserted 
positively  that  they  saw  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  (whose  identity 
was  unmistakable,  since  he  was  a  man  of  exceptional  stature)  brandish 
and  fire  a  revolver.  There  was  admittedly  other  firing  as  Captain 
Bowen-Colthurst's  party  marched  down  the  road,  which  Lieutenant 
Leslie  Wilson  told  us  was  for  the  purpose  of  securing  that  people 
at  the  windows  should  keep  indoors.  The  evidence  of  the  different 
witnesses  can  only  be  reconciled  by  inferring  that  more  than  one  case  of 
shooting  occurred  during  the  progress  of  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst' 's  parly. 

On  reaching  Portobello  Bridge  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  divided 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


373 


his  party  into  two,  and  left  half  of  it  in  the  charge  of  Lieutenant 
Leslie  Wilson,  while  going  forward  with  the  rest  to  attack  Alderman 
Kelley's  shop;  he  also  left  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeifington  at  the  bridge, 
giving  Lieutenant  Leslie  Wilson  orders  that,  if  he  (Captain  Bowen- 
Colthurst)  and  his  men  were  "knocked  out,"  Lieutenant  Leslie  Wilson 
was  to  take  command,  and  if  they  were  fired  upon.  Lieutenant  Wilson 
was  to  shoot  Mr.  Sheehy-Skefti n gt on . 

The  advance  party  then  went  on  its  way  and  was  absent  about 
twenty  minutes;  they  threw  a  bomb  into  Alderman  Kelly's  shop 
and  met  with  no  resistance  there.  Alderman  Kelly  was  absent; 
Mr.  Mclntyre,  who  was  a  friend  of  Alderman  Kelly,  had  been  on 
the  premises  some  time,  and  Air.  Dickson,  who  lived  close  by,  took 
refuge  there  when  he  heard  the  soldiers  firing  as  they  approached. 
Miss  Kelly,  who  is  a  sister  of  Alderman  Kelly,  gave  us  a  detailed 
account  of  the  raid  on  her  brother's  premises;  it  is  evident  from  her 
account  that  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  was  in  a  state  of  great  ex- 
citement. Dickson  and  Mclntyre.  together  with  two  other  men  who 
were  shortly  afterwards  released,  were  taken  into  custody,  and  Cap- 
tain Bowen-Colthurst  returned  to  barracks  with  them,  picking  up 
Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington  and  the  other  section  of  his  party  on  the  way. 

Mr.  Dickson  and  Mr.  Mclntyre  were  searched,  but  nothing  ma- 
terial was  found  on  them.  They  spent  the  night  in  the  detention 
room  along  with  some  other  civilians.  Mr.  Sheehy-Skenington,  as 
being  of  a  superior  social  position,  was  put  into  a  separate  cell,  and 
was  made  as  comfortable  as  possible. 

Mr.  Dickson  was  the  editor  of  a  paper  called  The  Eye-opener,  and 
Mr.  Mclntyre  was  the  editor  of  another  paper  known  as  The  Search- 
light. So  far  as  there  was  any  evidence  on  the  point  before  us,  it 
appears  that  the  only  reason  for  arresting  either  of  these  men  was 
the  circumstance  that  they  were  found  on  Alderman  Kelly's  premises 
and,  as  we  have  already  stated,  the  suspicion  entertained  against 
this  gentleman  was  without  foundation.  Mr.  Dickson  was  a  Scotch- 
man, and  deformed.  Neither  he  nor  Mr.  Mclntyre  had  any  connec- 
tion with  the  Sinn  Fein  movement. 

Shortly  after  10  A.M.  the  following  morning  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst came  to  the  guard  room.  He  appears  on  his  first  arrival  to 
have  entirely  ignored  Lieutenant  Dobbin,  who  was  standing  in  the  bar- 
rack square  near  to  the  guard  room  entrance,  and  having  passed  into 
the  guard  room  itself  to  have  given  his  orders  direct  to  the  sergeant. 
These  orders  were  to  the  effect  that  he  required  the  three  prisoners, 


374   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

Skeffington,  Dickson,  and  Mclntyre,  in  the  yard  for  the  purpose  of 
speaking  to  them.  The  yard  in  question  is  within  the  guard  room 
block  of  buildings,  being  reached  by  a  short  passage  from  the  guard 
room.  It  comprises  a  space  less  than  40  feet  in  length  and  some 
15  feet  in  width,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  high  brick  wall. 

During  the  few  moments  that  were  occupied  by  the  calling  out 
of  the  three  prisoners,  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  stepped  out  of  the 
guard  room  to  the  spot  where  Lieutenant  Dobbin  was  still  standing, 
and  informed  that  officer  that  he  was  taking  the  three  prisoners  out 
for  the  purpose  of  shooting  them,  as  he  thought  "it  was  the  best 
thing  to  do." 

When  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  returned  into  the  guard  room  after 
his  brief  statement  to  Lieutenant  Dobbin,  he  ordered  some  of  the 
guards,  with  their  rifles,  out  into  the  yard,  where  the  three  prisoners 
had  preceded  them.  All  the  men  on  duty  had  their  magazines  already 
filled,  and  seven  of  the  guard,  who  appear  to  have  been  merely  those 
that  happened  at  the  moment  to  be  nearest  the  yard  passage,  ac- 
companied by  Sergeant  Aldridge,  followed  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst 
out  into  the  yard.  What  then  occurred  took  place  so  rapidly  that 
we  have  little  doubt  that  none  of  the  three  victims  realized  that  they 
were  about  to  meet  their  death.  We  are  confirmed  in  this  view  by 
the  fact  that  all  the  witnesses,  including  civilian  prisoners  in  the 
detention  room,  to  whom  everything  that  took  place  in  the  yard 
was  audible,  agree  in  stating  that  no  sound  was  uttered  by  any  of  the 
three. 

While  the  soldiers  were  entering  the  yard  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst ordered  the  three  prisoners  to  walk  to  the  wall  at  the  other 
end,  a  distance,  as  we  have  stated,  of  only  a  few  yards.  As  they 
were  doing  this  the  seven  soldiers,  entering  the  yard,  fell  into  line 
along  the  wall  adjoining  the  entrance,  and  immediately  received  from 
Captain  Colthurst  the  order  to  fire  upon  the  three  prisoners  who  had 
then  just  turned  to  face  them.  All  three  fell  as  a  result  of  the  volley. 
Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  left  the  yard,  and  the  firing  party  began 
to  file  out. 

Immediately  upon  hearing  the  volley,  Lieutenant  Dobbin  (who 
was  engaged  in  receiving  the  Adjutant's  message  outside)  hastened 
through  the  guard  room  and  entered  the  yard.  On  looking  at  the 
bodies  he  saw  a  movement  in  one  of  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffing ton's  legs 
which  gave  him  the  impression  that  life  was  not  yet  extinct,  and  he 
exclaimed  to  Sergeant  Aldridge,  who  was  still  in  the  yard,  ^ Sergeant, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  375 


that  man  is  not  dead."  It  is  Sergeant  Aldridge's  impression  (and  we 
are  inclined  to  accept  the  evidence  of  this  witness,  who  was  both  ex- 
perienced and  candid)  that  death  had,  nevertheless,  been  instantane- 
ous in  all  three  cases,  and  that  what  Lieutenant  Dobbin  saw  was  a 
muscular  contraction  of  the  unfortunate  gentleman's  limb.  As  a  re- 
sult, however,  of  what  he  saw,  Lieutenant  Dobbin  dispatched  one  of 
the  other  officers  of  the  guard,  Lieutenant  Tooley,  in  the  orderly 
room  to  report  and  obtain  instructions.  At,  or  in  the  neighborhood 
of,  the  orderly  room,  Lieutenant  Tooley  met  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst,  and  received  from  him  the  order  to  fire  again. Lieutenant 
Tooley  returned  with  this  message,  and  thereupon  four  soldiers  (not 
all  members  of  the  first  firing  party)  were  ordered  into  the  yard  by 
Lieutenant  Dobbin,  and  upon  his  directions  fired  a  second  volley  into 
the  body  of  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington. 

Not  Jong  after  the  shooting  had  taken  place,  and  before  10.30 
a.m.,  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  reported  verbally  to  the  Adjutant 
at  the  orderly  room  that  he  had  shot  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington  and 
the  editors  of  the  Eye-opener  and  the  Searchlight.  Either  then  or 
later  he  gave  as  his  reason  for  so  doing  the  fear  that  they  would 
escape  or  might  be  rescued  by  armed  force.  There  was  710  foundation 
wliatever  for  any  appreJiension  as  to  the  escape  of  these  prisoners,  and 
no  sane  person  who  honestly  entertained  such  a  possibility  as  a  rescue 
would  have  seen  in  it  any  ground  for  distinction  between  these  three 
prisoners  and  the  other  detained  persons.  At  or  about  the  same  time, 
Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  verbally  reported  his  action  to  Major 
Rosborough,  adding  that  he  had  shot  the  three  prisoners  on  his  own 
responsibility  and  that  he  possibly  might  be  hanged  for  it.  Major 
Rosborough  told  him  to  make  his  report  hi  writing,  and  instructed 
the  Adjutant  to  report  the  matter  to  the  Garrison  Adjutant  at 
Dublin  Castle. 

The  disturbances  continued  throughout  the  week,  and  on  Friday 
(April  28th)  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington,  who  had  last  seen  her  husband 
in  Westmoreland  Street  on  the  previous  Tuesday  afternoon,  was  still 
without  definite  information  as  to  what  had  happened  to  him.  As  a 
result  of  alarming  rumors  about  him  which  reached  her  from  various 
sources,  her  two  sisters,  Mrs.  Culhane,  and  Mrs.  Kettle,  on  the 
morning  of  Friday  went  to  the  police  station  at  Rathmines  to  make 
inquiries.  The  police  had  no  information  to  give,  but  suggested  that 
the  two  ladies  might  inquire  at  Portobello  Barracks,  where  they 
accordingly  went. 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Mrs.  Kettle  and  her  sister  arrived  at  the  barracks  at  about  1  p.m., 
and  after  some  slight  delay  were  admitted  past  the  first  and  second 
gates.  A  junior  officer,  Lieutenant  Beattie,  came  up  to  inquire  as  to 
their  business.  Mrs.  Kettle  and  her  sister  thought  it  well  to  com- 
mence their  inquiries  by  asking  in  the  first  place  as  to  their  brother, 
Lieutenant  Sheehy.  To  this  they  received  a  courteous  reply.  They 
then  asked  as  to  their  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington, 
whereupon  the  young  officer  with  whom  they  were  conversing  be- 
trayed some  confusion,  asked  them  to  excuse  him,  and  went  away 
to  consult  with  some  other  officer.  On  returning,  he  informed  the 
two  ladies  that  he  regretted  that  he  would  have  to  place  them  under 
arrest,  giving  as  his  reason  that  they  were  Sinn  Feiners  and  had 
been  seen  speaking  to  Sinn  Feiners.  Mrs.  Kettle  and  her  sister 
pointed  out  the  absurdity  of  the  allegation  and  referred  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Lieutenant  Kettle  and  of  the  late  Mr.  Culhane;  they  were, 
however,  placed  in  charge  of  some  soldiers  and  inarched  across  the 
barrack  square  to  the  orderly  room,  outside  which  they  remained 
standing,  surrounded  by  soldiers,  while  a  consultation  of  officers  ap- 
pears to  have  taken  place  within.  After  some  minutes  Captain 
Bowen-Colthurst  emerged  from  the  guard  room  and  questioned  them. 
They  repeated  their  inquiries  as  to  Lieutenant  Sheehy  and  as  to 
Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington.  Captain  Colthurst,  in  reply  to  the  latter 
inquiry,  said:  "I  know  nothing  whatever  about  Mr.  Sheehy- 
Skeffington."  Mrs.  Culhane  referred  to  some  of  the  rumors  which 
had  reached  them,  and  Lieutenant  Beattie,  who  was  the  only  other 
officer  actually  present  at  this  interview,  made  some  remark  to 
Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  in  an  undertone.  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst then  said:  "I  have  no  information  concerning  Mr.  Skeffing- 
ton  that  is  available,  and  the  sooner  you  leave  the  barracks  the 
better."  There  was  then  an  order  given  to  have  the  ladies  conducted 
back,  and,  by  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst's  direction,  they  were  for- 
bidden to  speak  to  one  another.  The  guard  was  dismissed  at  the 
gate,  and  the  two  ladies  were  conducted  to  the  tramway  line  by 
Lieutenant  Beattie. 

About  four  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday,  after  receiving  her 
sister's  report  of  what  had  just  taken  place  in  the  barracks,  Mrs. 
Sheehy-Skeffington  got  into  touch  with  the  father  of  the  young  man 
Coade,  to  whose  death  we  have  referred.  Father  O'Loughlin,  the 
chaplain  of  the  barracks,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned,  knew 
young  Coade  as  a  member  of  the  religious  sodality  of  which  he 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  377 


(Father  O'Loughlin)  was  spiritual  director,  and  at  a  meeting  of  which 
Coade  had  been  present  on  the  night  he  met  his  death.  The  father 
of  Coade  was  informed  of  his  son's  fate  by  Father  O'Loughlin,  and 
was  permitted  to  visit  the  dead  body  in  the  mortuary  at  the  barracks. 
Here  the  unfortunate  man  saw  the  body  of  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington 
laid  out  beside  that  of  his  son,  a  fact  which  on  Friday  afternoon  he 
communicated  to  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington.  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skefiington, 
on  Mr.  Coade's  suggestion,  at  once  sought  out  Father  O'Loughlin 
and  besought  him  for  particulars  as  to  her  husband.  She  was  told 
that  he  was  dead  and  already  buried. 

At  7  p.m.  on  this  same  Friday  evening  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington 
was  putting  her  little  son,  aged  seven,  to  bed,  when  a  body  of  sol- 
diers from  Portobello  barracks  headed  by  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst 
and  Colonel  Allen  (an  officer  of  advanced  years  who  had  returned  to 
service  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  and  who  was  killed  during  the 
later  stages  of  the  Rebellion)  arrived  at  the  house.  Mrs.  Sheehy- 
Skeffington  was  alone  in  the  house  save  for  her  boy  and  a  young 
maid-servant.  Before  any  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  an  entrance 
into  the  house,  a  volley  was  fired  through  the  windows.  A  body  of 
soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  under  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  then 
burst  in  through  the  front  door.  No  request  for  the  door  to  be 
opened  was  made,  nor  was  any  time  given  to  those  in  the  house  to 
open  it.  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington  and  her  boy  had  bayonets  pointed 
at  them  and  were  ordered  to  hold  their  hands  above  their  heads. 
They  were  then,  by  orders  of  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst,  placed  in  the 
front  room  together  with  the  maid-servant,  and  kept  guarded  while 
the  house  was  searched.  All  the  rooms  in  the  house  were  thoroughly 
ransacked,  and  a  considerable  quantity  of  books  and  papers  were 
wrapped  up  in  the  household  linen,  placed  in  a  passing  motor  car. 
and  taken  away.  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffington  has  been  herself  a  teacher 
of  foreign  languages,  while  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington  was  at  the  time 
the  editor  of  a  paper  known  as  Tlie  Irish  Citizen,  and  a  large  part  of 
the  material  removed  seems  to  have  consisted  of  text-books  both  in 
German  and  other  languages  as  well  as  political  papers  and  pam- 
phlets belonging  to  Mr.  Sheehy-Skeffington.  The  search  lasted  until 
a  quarter-past  ten,  when  the  soldiers  departed;  Mrs.  Sheehy-Skeffing- 
ton, together  with  her  boy  and  maid-servant,  remained  under  arrest 
up  to  that  hour. 

As  a  result  of  a  communication  to  the  military  authorities  in 
London,  made  by  Major  Sir  Francis  Vane  (one  of  many  officers  who 


378   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

had  reported  at  Portobello  Barracks  at  the  commencement  of  the 
outbreak),  Captain  Bowen-Colthurst  was  placed  under  "open"  arrest 
upon  May  6th,  and  subsequently  on  May  11th  under  "close"  arrest. 
Major  Sir  Francis  Vane  was  not  an  officer  of  the  regiment  stationed 
at  the  barracks,  and  had  no  responsibility  for  any  of  the  events  we 
have  described.  On  the  6th  and  7th  of  June,  Captain  Bowen-Col- 
thurst was  tried  by  court-martial  in  Dublin  for  the  murder  of  the 
three  men  and  was  found  guilty  but  insane. 


CHAPTER  LVII 


Hoping  Against  Hope 

ON  Friday  close  on  60,000  British  soldiers  were  fight- 
ing in  Dublin  against  1100  Irish.  The  cordon  had 
coiled  itself  in  ever  narrower  folds  around  the  men 
of  the  Republic,  whose  flag,  however,  was  still  flying  defi- 
antly over  the  General  Post  Office,  Boland's  Mills,  the 
South  Dublin  Union,  the  Four  Courts,  and  elsewhere.  The 
main  strength  of  the  British  was  concentrated  on  O'Connell 
Street,  which  was  by  this  time  a  raging  inferno  of  fire  and 
shot.  Scores  of  blocks  of  the  buildings  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Post  Office  were  blazing,  and  shells  were  con- 
tinuously dropping  on  the  Post  Office  itself. 

It  was  by  this  time  evident  that  only  one  thing  could  save 
the  Republic.  Even  at  this  late  hour,  after  the  men  of  Dublin 
had  held  out  against  enormous  odds  for  five  days,  if  the  men 
of  the  country  had  risen  there  would  have  been  still  a  big 
chance  of  victory.  This  was  the  one  hope  that  animated 
the  leaders.  Early  that  morning  Commandant  Connolly 
prepared  and  issued  a  statement,  which,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  Connolly  was  seriously  wounded  in  the  thigh,  was  read 
to  the  men  in  the  Post  OfEce  by  The  O'Rahilly.  This  is 
the  document: 

"Army  of  the  Irish  Republic 
(Dublin  Command) 
Headquarters,  April  28,  1916. 

To  Soldiers: 

This  is  the  fifth  day  of  the  establishment  of  the  Irish  Republic, 
and  the  flag  of  our  country  still  floats  from  the  most  important  build- 
ings in  Dublin,  and  is  gallantly  protected  by  the  Irish  officers  and 
soldiers  in  arms  throughout  the  country.  Not  a  day  passes  without 
seeing  fresh  postings  of  Irish  soldiers  eager  to  do  battle  for  the  old 
cause.   Despite  the  utmost  vigilance  of  the  enemy,  we  have  been 


380   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


able  to  get  information,  telling  us  how  the  manhood  of  Ireland,  in- 
spired by  our  splendid  action,  are  gathering  to  offer  up  their  lives  if 
necessary  in  the  same  holy  cause.  We  are  here  hemmed  in,  because 
the  enemy  feels  that  in  this  building  is  to  be  found  the  heart  and 
inspiration  of  our  great  movement. 

Let  us  remind  you  what  you  have  done.  For  the  first  time  in 
700  years  the  flag  of  a  free  Ireland  floats  triumphantly  in  Dublin 
City. 

The  British  Army,  whose  exploits  we  are  forever  having  dinned 
into  our  ears,  which  boasts  of  having  stormed  the  Dardanelles  and 
the  German  lines  on  the  Marne,  behind  their  artillery  and  machine 
guns  are  afraid  to  advance  to  the  attack  or  storm  any  positions  held 
by  our  forces.  The  slaughter  they  suffered  in  the  first  few  days  has 
totally  unnerved  them,  and  they  dare  not  attempt  again  an  infantry 
attack  on  our  positions. 

Our  Commandants  around  us  are  holding  their  own. 

Commandant  Daly's  splendid  exploit  in  capturing  Linen  Hall 
Barracks  we  all  know.  You  must  know  also  that  the  whole  popula- 
tion, both  clergy  and  laity,  of  this  district  are  united  in  his  praises. 
Commandant  MacDonagh  is  established  in  an  impregnable  position 
reaching  from  the  walls  of  Dublin  Castle  to  Redmond's  Hill,  and 
from  Bishop  Street  to  Stephen's  Green. 

In  Stephen's  Green,  Commandant   holds  the  College  of  Sur- 

geons, one  side  of  the  square,  a  portion  of  the  other  side,  and  domi- 
nates the  whole  Green  and  all  its  entrances  and  exits. 

Commandant  De  Valera  stretches  in  a  position  from  the  Gas 
Works  to  Westland  Row,  holding  Boland's  Bakery,  Boland's  Mills, 
Dublin  Southeastern  Railway  Works,  and  dominating  Merrion 
Square. 

Commandant  Kent  holds  the  South  Dublin  Union  and  Guinness's 
Buildings  to  Marrowbone  Lane,  and  controls  James's  Street  and 
district. 

On  two  occasions  the  enemy  effected  a  lodgment  and  were  driven 
out  with  great  loss. 

The  men  of  North  County  Dublin  are  in  the  field,  have  occupied 
all  the  Police  Barracks  in  the  district,  destroyed  all  the  telegraph 
system  on  the  Great  Northern  Railway  up  to  Dundalk,  and  are 
operating  against  the  trains  of  the  Midland  Great  Western. 

Dundalk  has  sent  200  men  to  march  upon  Dublin,  and  in  the 
other  parts  of  the  North  our  forces  are  active  and  growing. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  381 


In  Galway  Captain   ,  fresh  after  his  escape  from  an  Irish 

prison,  is  in  the  field  with  his  men.  Wexford  and  Wicklow  are  strong, 
and  Cork  and  Kerry  are  equally  acquitting  themselves  creditably. 
We  have  every  confidence  that  our  Allies  in  Germany  and  kinsmen 
in  America  are  straining  every  nerve  to  hasten  matters  on  our  behalf. 

As  you  know,  I  was  wounded  twice  yesterday  and  am  unable  to 
move  about,  but  have  got  my  bed  moved  into  the  firing  line,  and, 
with  the  assistance  of  your  officers,  will  be  just  as  useful  to  you  as 
ever. 

Courage,  boys,  we  are  winning,  and  in  the  hour  of  our  victory  let 
us  not  forget  the  splendid  women  who  have  everywhere  stood  by  us 
and  cheered  us  on.  Never  had  man  or  woman  a  grander  cause, 
never  was  a  cause  more  grandly  served. 

(Signed)  James  Connolly, 
Commandant-General, 
Dublin  Division. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  these  brave  words,  the  leaders  recognized 
they  had  accomplished  all  that  could  be  hoped  for  at  that 
time,  and  that  they  themselves  were  doomed  to  pay  the 
penalty  for  the  love  of  their  country.  The  British  had  suc- 
ceeded in  cutting  the  communications,  and  had  thus  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  one  section  to  know  what  the  other 
was  doing.  Furthermore,  ammunition  was  running  short, 
and  they  were  surrounded  by  an  enemy  equipped  with  every 
engine  of  destruction  that  modern  military  science  had  been 
able  to  construct:  an  enemy  that  outnumbered  them  fifty 
or  sixty  to  one.  Even  the  most  optimistic  could  not  but 
know  that  the  end  was  at  hand. 

At  the  same  time,  they  knew  that  they  had  effected  the 
one  great  object  which  they  had  set  out  to  attain.  They 
had  saved  the  soul  of  Ireland  from  the  pollution  of  inaction, 
from  the  shame  and  degradation  of  sitting  with  hands  folded 
while  weapons  were  being  taken  and  a  country  and  people 
left  defenseless.  This  was  the  spirit  and  the  knowledge  that 
buoyed  them  up  during  these  last  hours  while  they  still 
fought  on,  hoping  against  hope  that  the  rest  of  the  country 
would  come  to  their  relief  at  the  last  minute,  hoping  and 


382   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


fighting  when  there  was  no  hope  and  when  the  means  of 
fighting  were  dwindling  with  every  shot  that  was  fired. 

At  9.30  of  Friday  morning  President  Pearse  signed  the 
last  proclamation  previous  to  the  document  of  surrender. 
It  is  a  document  that  will  be  treasured  as  long  as  there  is  an 
Irish  man  or  woman  who  loves  his  native  land.  It  reads  as 
follows : 

Headquarters,  Army  of  the  Irish  Republic,  General 
Post  Office,  Dublin 

28th  April,  1916,  9:30  a.m. 

The  Forces  of  the  Irish  Republic,  which  was  proclaimed  in  Dublin 
on  Easter  Monday,  24th  April,  have  been  in  possession  of  the  cen- 
tral part  of  the  capital  since  12  noon  on  that  day.  Up  to  yesterday 
afternoon  Headquarters  was  in  touch  with  all  the  main  outlying 
positions,  and,  despite  furious  and  almost  continuous  assaults  by  the 
British  Forces,  all  those  positions  were  then  still  being  held,  and  the 
commandants  in  charge  were  confident  of  their  ability  to  hold  them 
for  a  long  time. 

During  the  course  of  yesterday  afternoon  and  evening  the  enemy 
succeeded  in  cutting  our  communications  with  our  other  positions 
in  the  city,  and  Headquarters  is  to-day  isolated. 

The  enemy  has  burnt  down  whole  blocks  of  houses,  apparently 
with  the  object  of  giving  themselves  a  clear  field  for  the  play  of 
artillery  and  field  guns  against  us.  We  have  been  bombarded  during 
the  evening  and  night  by  shrapnel  and  machine-gun  fire,  but  with- 
out material  damage  to  our  position,  which  is  of  great  strength. 

We  are  busy  completing  arrangements  for  the  final  defense  of 
Headquarters,  and  are  determined  to  hold  it  while  the  buildings  last. 

I  desire  now,  lest  I  may  not  have  an  opportunity  later,  to  pay 
homage  to  the  gallantry  of  the  soldiers  of  Irish  Freedom,  who  have, 
during  the  past  four  days,  been  writing  with  fire  and  steel  the  most 
glorious  chapter  in  the  later  history  of  Ireland.  Justice  can  never 
be  done  to  their  heroism,  to  their  discipline,  to  their  gay  and  uncom- 
querable  spirit,  in  the  midst  of  peril  and  death. 

Let  me,  who  have  led  them  into  this,  speak,  in  my  own  and  my 
fellow-commanders'  names,  and  in  the  name  of  Ireland  present  and 
to  come,  their  praise  and  ask  those  who  come  after  them  to  remem- 
ber them. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  383 


For  four  days  they  have  fought  and  toiled,  almost  without  cessa- 
tion, almost  without  sleep,  and  in  the  intervals  of  fighting  they 
have  sung  songs  of  the  freedom  of  Ireland.  No  man  has  complained; 
no  man  has  asked  "Why?"  Each  individual  has  spent  himself, 
happy  to  pour  out  his  strength  for  Ireland  and  for  freedom.  If  they 
do  not  win  the  fight,  they  will  at  least  have  deserved  to  win  it.  But 
win  it  they  will,  although  they  may  win  it  in  death.  Already  they 
have  won  a  great  thing.  They  have  redeemed  Dublin  from  many 
shames,  and  made  her  name  splendid  among  the  names  of  cities. 

If  I  were  to  mention  names  of  individuals,  my  list  would  be  a 
long  one. 

I  will  name  only  that  of  Commandant  General  James  Connolly, 
commanding  the  Dublin  division.  He  lies  wounded,  but  is  still  the 
guiding  brain  of  our  resistance. 

If  we  accomplish  no  more  than  we  have  accomplished,  I  am  satis- 
fied. I  am  satisfied  that  we  have  saved  Ireland's  honor.  I  am  satis- 
fied that  we  should  have  accomplished  more,  that  we  should  have 
accomplished  the  task  of  enthroning,  as  well  as  proclaiming  the  Irish 
Republic  as  a  Sovereign  State,  had  our  arrangements  for  a  simul- 
taneous rising  of  the  whole  country,  with  a  combined  plan  as  sound 
as  the  Dublin  plan  has  been  proved  to  be,  been  allowed  to  go  through 
on  Easter  Sunday.  Of  the  fatal  countermanding  order  which  pre- 
vented those  plans  from  being  carried  out,  I  shall  not  speak  further. 
Both  Eoin  MacNeill  and  we  have  acted  in  the  best  interests  of 
Ireland. 

For  my  part,  as  to  anything  I  have  done  in  this,  I  am  not  afraid 
to  face  either  the  judgment  of  God,  or  the  judgment  of  posterity. 

(Signed)  P.  H.  Pearse, 
Commandant-General,  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army 
of  the   Irish   Republic,   and    President   of  the 
Provisional  Government. 

At  the  Post  Office  there  were  three  lines  of  barricades, 
and  every  effort  had  been  made  to  make  the  place  impossi- 
ble of  assault.  For  some  hours  on  Thursday  night  the  build- 
ing had  been  under  artillery  fire,  and  this  bombardment 
was  kept  up  on  Friday  morning.  Sean  MacDermott  was 
in  charge  of  lines  of  hose,  with  which  one  fire  after  another 
that  was  started  by  the  incendiary  shells  was  extinguished, 
before  it  was  able  to  secure  a  hold.    One  part  of  the  build- 


384   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

ing  after  another  was  flooded  with  water,  but  the  shells 
fell  so  fast  and  so  thick  that  even  these  efforts  were  vain 
to  prevent  a  conflagration. 

It  was  shortly  after  noon  that  the  fire  got  beyond  con- 
trol. Men  were  called  from  the  firing  lines  to  extinguish 
the  blaze,  but  it  foiled  all  their  efforts.  Shell  after  shell 
fell  in  the  same  place,  the  gunners  evidently  having  dis- 
covered that  their  efforts  were  meeting  with  success.  Guns 
were  firing  from  the  other  side  of  the  Liffey,  from  the  gun- 
boat on  the  Liffey,  from  Talbot  Street,  and  from  Parnell 
Street.  With  the  heavy  artillery  were  combined  machine 
guns,  that  kept  up  a  continuous  rain  of  bullets  on  the  build- 
ing and  on  every  inch  of  O'Connell  and  Henry  Streets.  It 
seemed  to  be  the  object  of  the  British  to  set  fire  to  the 
Post  Office,  and  at  the  same  time  make  it  impossible  for  the 
Republicans  to  attempt  to  escape,  even  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
so  that  they  would  be  burned  alive. 

When  it  was  seen  that  it  was  impossible  to  remain  in  the 
Post  Office,  the  men  were  lined  up  in  the  yard  at  the  back, 
and  told  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  break  through. 
Even  at  this  time  the  spirits  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  men 
and  of  their  leaders  were  undiminished.  The  men  cheered 
when  told  that  they  were  going  to  have  a  hand-to-hand 
engagement.  They  did  not  seem  to  fear  the  hurricane  of 
bullets  that  they  knew  was  waiting  for  them  outside  the 
burning  building.  Someone  started  to  sing,  and  the  Irish 
National  Anthem  rose  above  the  shriek  and  roar  of  the 
British  shells: 

When  boyhood's  fire  was  in  my  blood, 

I  read  of  ancient  freemen, 
Of  Greece  and  Rome  who  bravely  stood, 

Three  hundred  men  and  three  men. 

The  men  then  began  to  collect  all  the  foodstuffs  that  could 
be  obtained.  The  building  was  thoroughly  searched,  in 
spite  of  the  flames  that  were  now  raging  and  the  shells  that 
were   dropping  into  the  ruins  every   minute.    The  hand 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  385 


grenades  had  been  brought  down  to  the  cellar  as  soon  as 
the  bombardment  had  started,  and  these  were  now  por- 
tioned among  the  men.  When  all  the  preparations  had  been 
completed,  the  little  band  left  the  building  by  the  side  door 
in  Henry  Street. 

A  dash  was  made  across  this  bullet-swept  thoroughfare 
into  Moore  Street  on  the  other  side.  In  that  dash  more 
than  one  of  these  brave  men  died,  riddled  with  bullets. 
But  his  comrades  pressed  on,  led  by  the  intrepid  O'Rahilly 
and  safely  gained  Moore  Street,  where  a  barricade  had  been 
erected.  Here,  however,  they  were  exposed  to  the  fire  of 
the  military  from  Parnell  Street.  The  Republicans  en- 
trenched themselves  in  the  best  manner  possible,  and  began 
to  return  the  fire  of  the  military. 

The  deaths  in  the  dash  across  Henry  Street  were  the  first 
that  had  taken  place  among  the  actual  garrison  in  the  Post 
Office,  although  men  in  the  Post  Office  area  had  been  wounded 
or  killed.  In  spite  of  all  the  expenditure  of  ammunition  on 
the  part  of  the  British  for  days  past  none  of  the  men  in  the 
Post  Office  with  the  exception  of  Connolly  had  even  been 
scratched. 

With  the  men  who  made  the  sortie  were  President  Pearse, 
Sean  MacDermott,  James  Connolly,  who  had  to  be  carried, 
Tom  Clarke,  and  Joseph  Plunkett. 

The  British  were  not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  the  fact 
that  the  Irish  had  evacuated  the  Post  Office.  A  machine- 
gun  squad  that  had  been  operating  in  Talbot  Street  moved 
up  to  the  corner  of  North  Earl  Street,  so  as  to  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  fire  across  the  side  of  Moore  Street.  As  this  meant 
that  the  Republicans  would  be  hemmed  in  in  this  narrow 
street  with  a  cross  fire  at  both  sides,  it  was  determined  to 
make  an  effort  to  force  the  retreat  of  the  British  in  North 
Earl  Street.  The  O'Rahilly  undertook  the  leadership  of 
the  charge,  and  himself  led  his  men  into  Henry  Street.  A 
heavy  volley  was  directed  against  the  British  at  the  same 
time,  and  the  rebels  charged  into  O'Connell  Street  over  a 
ground  swept  by  a  deadly  cross  fire,  and  forced  the  British 


386   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


to  retire.  Having  accomplished  all  they  could  hope  to  do 
at  this  point,  the  Republicans  also  fell  back. 

A  murderous  interchange  of  bullets  was  now  taking  place. 
The  British  had  recovered  from  their  set-back,  and,  smart- 
ing under  a  sense  of  defeat,  they  sent  a  hurricane  of  bullets 
into  Henry  Street.  To  this  the  Republicans  replied  in  kind, 
and,  although  they  lacked  machine  guns,  their  aim  was  so  cool 
and  so  deadly  that  the  British  in  Talbot  Street  were  falling 
in  scores.  The  first  gun  crew  had  been  almost  wiped  out, 
the  officer  in  charge  was  a  corpse,  and  the  other  detachments 
that  were  running  to  the  relief  were  also  suffering  heavily. 
One  shell  and  then  another  burst  over  Henry  Street,  and 
showers  of  shrapnel  followed.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  this, 
one  of  the  bloodiest  fights  that  took  place  during  the  Rebel- 
lion, that  The  O'Rahilly  fell,  mortally  shot,  and  died  prac- 
tically instantaneously. 

While  the  loss  of  their  leader  was  a  sore  blow  to  his  men, 
they  continued  to  fight  on  and  were  able  to  hold  the  end  of 
Moore  Street  leading  into  Henry  Street.  This  was  really 
the  rear  of  the  position  occupied  by  this  force  of  the  Repub- 
licans, as  they  held  the  end  facing  Parnell  Street  as  their 
main  line.  But  it  was  obvious  that  they  would  be  able  to 
hold  out  here  only  for  a  few  hours  at  the  most,  as  the  shrap- 
nel was  beginning  to  burst  over  them,  and  one  after  another 
of  the  houses  and  stores  along  the  street  blazed  up  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  bombardment. 

It  was  during  the  Friday  that  the  British  were  at  last  able 
to  complete  their  cordon  around  the  Fourt  Courts,  and  this 
was  a  serious  blow  to  the  men  in  Moore  Street,  as  it  cut 
off  their  last  line  of  retreat.  At  the  same  time  the  men  under 
Commandant  Daly  were  making  a  magnificent  resistance, 
and  were  in  a  position  to  hold  out  for  several  days.  The 
men  in  Stephen's  Green,  at  Boland's  Mills,  where  De  Valera 
was  giving  the  British  more  fight  than  they  wanted,  and  at 
the  South  Dublin  Union,  were  also  keeping  the  flag  flying. 
In  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  enemy,  the  College  of  Sur- 
geons was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Countess  Markievicz  and 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  387 


the  Fianna.  Only  in  the  Post  Office  area,  where  most  of 
the  strength  of  the  British  was  concentrated,  had  the  enemy 
made  any  real  progress.  But,  when  Friday  night  closed 
down,  it  was  evident  that  there  was  no  hope  from  the  coun- 
try, that  the  fatal  order  of  Eoin  MacNeill  had  had  its  effect, 
and  that  the  men  of  Dublin  were  doomed. 


CHAPTER  LVIII 
A  Grim  Night  Scene 


W 


IILE  a  multitude  of  facts  regarding  the  Rebellion 

were  suppressed  by  the  British  Government,  there 
were  some  that  were  forced  to  the  surface,  and  give 


an  indication  of  the  true  state  of  affairs  in  Dublin  during 
the  rising.  In  this  category  is  an  incident  which  took  place 
in  Guinness's  Brewery  on  Saturday  night,  April  29,  and 
which,  while  of  comparatively  small  importance  in  itself, 
is  of  value  as  an  index  of  the  condition  of  mind  that  pre- 
vailed among  the  British  in  Dublin  even  on  that  night 
when  the  Rebellion  was  virtually  at  an  end. 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  the  official  account  of  the  trial 
of  a  British  officer  for  murdering  his  superior  during  the  rising. 

Major  General  Lord  Cheylesmore,  K.C.V.O.,  presided  over  the 
Court,  and  Mr.  Kenneth  Marshall  was  Judge  Advocate. 

The  accuse*  1  pleaded  Dot  guilty,  and  was  defended  by  Mr.  Henry 
Hanna,  K.C.  (instructed  by  Mr.  Joseph  Gleeson). 

The  prosecution  was  conducted  by  Major  E.  G.  Kimber,  D.S.O. 
(instructed  l>y  Mr.  Robertson,  Chief  Crown  Solicitor's  Office). 

Major  Kimber,  in  opening  the  case,  said  the  occurrences  arose  out 
of  the  late  rebellion  in  Dublin.  It  appeared  that  at  Guinness's  Brew- 
ery the  rebels  had  established  themselves,  south  of  the  western  corner 
of  the  brewery.  It  became  a  pitch  dark  night,  and  that  was  a  matter 
which  should  be  recollected.  On  the  evening  of  April  28th  about  7 
o'clock,  Colonel  Williams,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  area,  ordered 
Captain  M'Namara  to  put  a  guard  in  the  malthouse.  Accordingly 
Captain  M'Namara  went  there  with  Company,  Quartermaster-Ser- 
geant Flood  and  nine  men,  and  occupied  the  malthouse.  The  orders 
which  Colonel  Williams  gave  to  Captain  M'Namara  were  that  he  was 
not  to  return  the  snipers'  shots  and  not  to  fire  at  all  unless  there 
were  attempts  to  enter  the  brewery.  At  11  o'clock  that  night  Cap- 
tain Rotheram  was  ordered  by  Colonel  Williams  to  take  down  Sec- 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


389 


ond  Lieutenant  Lucas  (who  was  subsequently  killed)  to  the  brewery 
in  order  to  relieve  Captain  M'Namara.  Mr.  Lucas  belonged  to  King 
Edward's  Horse,  and  at  that  time  officers  had  been  sent  to  different 
jobs.  The  guard  in  the  malthouse  belonged  to  the  Royal  Dublin 
Fusiliers.  Of  course  Mr.  Lucas  was  unknown  to  the  Company, 
Quartermaster-Sergeant  or  any  of  the  guard.  Captain  Rotheram  took 
with  him  extra  men,  and  when  he  left  Mr.  Lucas  the  guard  numbered 
fifteen  men.  They  were  put  out  at  different  center  posts  in  the  build- 
ing, and  the  orders  which  Colonel  Williams  had  given  Captain 
M'Namara  were  repeated  to  Mr.  Lucas  in  the  presence  of  the  ac- 
cused, and  in  addition  to  that  Captain  M'Namara  said:  "It  is  inad- 
visable to  open  any  of  the  windows,  but  if  it  is  necessary  to  fire,  it 
would  be  better  to  fire  through  the  windows  rather  than  open  them 
and  attract  the  attention  of  the  rebels."  He  also  told  the  accused 
that  Mr.  Lucas  was  relieving  him.  The  official  who  acted  as  guide 
told  the  guard  that  there  was  no  one  in  the  building  except  three 
watchmen  who,  when  they  went  their  rounds,  carried  lights.  It 
seemed  that  lights  were  seen  by  several  of  the  guard  during  the 
evening  from  the  houses  round  and  from  the  direction  of  the  dis- 
tillery. It  was  feared  that  the  rebels  might  make  an  attack  on  the 
military  from  two  directions,  so  that  lights  would  cause  consider- 
able suspicion,  as  they  might  be  regarded  as  signals. 

At  any  rate,  whatever  it  was,  the  guard  got  into  a  state  of  jumpi- 
ness,  and  the  consequence  was  that  when  Lieutenant  Lucas  went 
round  with  Mr.  Rice,  one  of  the  brewery  officials,  the  sentries  on 
several  occasions  got  the  idea  that  he  was  a  stranger  who  had  no 
business  there.  The  conversations  he  had  with  them  were  misinter- 
preted, and  they  came  to  a  conclusion  which  was  utterly  false,  and 
unfortunately  it  was  shared  by  the  accused.  Lieutenant  Lucas 
opened  a  window.  The  men  knew  that  orders  had  been  given  that 
the  windows  were  not  to  be  opened.  It  looked  very  suspicious.  The 
state  of  mind  into  which  accused  had  got  at  that  time  led  him  to 
arrest  Lieutenant  Lucas  and  Mr.  Rice,  who  were  subsequently  shot. 
The  officer,  before  being  shot,  was  asked  to  "say  his  prayers,"  and 
having  done  so  he  said  he  was  sorry,  but  "the  boys  led  him  into  it." 
Soon  afterwards  another  officer  was  coming  down  a  staircase.  He 
was  challenged  and  searched,  and  rushed  at  the  sergeant,  knocking 
him  down.  The  men  of  the  guard  fired  and  the  second  officer, 
Lieutenant  Worswick,  was  killed,  and  also  a  civilian,  who  was  with 
him,  named  Dockery. 


S90   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Captain  Rotheram,  of  the  10th  Reserve  Calvary  Regiment,  de- 
posed to  being  on  duty  on  the  date  in  question  with  Colonel  Williams 
and  Second  Lieutenant  Lucas.  About  11  p.m.  he  received  orders  to 
take  an  officer  to  Guinness's  Brewery  to  relieve  Captain  M'Namara. 
He  took  Lieutenant  Lucas,  and  saw  Captain  M'Namara,  who  ex- 
plained the  situation.  He  did  not  see  the  accused  at  the  time,  as  it 
was  quite  dark.  About  %  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  was  in  Watling 
Street  and  received  a  certain  communication,  and  certain  orders 
were  given.  Later  a  telephone  message  reached  him  to  the  effect 
that  Mr.  Rice  was  a  prisoner.  Witness  gave  orders  to  do  nothing 
until  daylight.  About  3.30  a.m.  he  was  told  that  there  was  a  ser- 
geant outside  who  wanted  to  see  him.  He  went  out  and  saw  the 
accused,  who  had  with  him  about  fourteen  men.  They  all  seemed 
very  excited.  The  accused  reported  that  he  had  shot  two  men,  and 
he  thought  the  malthouse  was  full  of  rebels.  Witness  asked  him 
where  Lucas  was,  and  he  said  he  thought  he  had  shot  him.  He  then 
went  to  the  malthouse  and  searched  it.  He  found  on  the  first  floor 
the  bodies  of  Lieutenant  Worswick  and  Mr.  Dockery  and  on  the  next 
floor  the  bodies  of  Lieutenant  Lucas  and  Mr.  Rice. 

Private  Maurice  McCarthy,  R.D.F.,  examined  by  Major  Kimber, 
stated  that  he  was  one  of  a  picket  under  Quartermaster  Flood  in  the 
malthouse  of  Guinness's  Brewery  on  April  28.  He  was  told  an  attack 
was  expected  from  Robert  Street.  Witness  was  called  by  Quarter- 
master Flood  and  went  up  on  the  stairs.  There  was  an  officer  there 
and  a  civilian. 

What  took  place?  I  was  ordered  to  search  the  officer.  The 
Quartermaster  said  to  the  officer:     I  know  you. 

Had  the  Quartermaster  a  torch?  Yes,  he  held  the  torch  so  that 
the  light  fell  on  the  faces  of  the  officer  and  the  civilian.  The  officer 
and  the  civilian  seemed  to  know  each  other,  from  a  look  that  passed 
between  them. 

What  else  took  place?  The  Quartermaster  gave  the  order  to  search 
them. 

What  further?  He  told  me  to  stand  them  up  against  a  window 
and  cover  them  with  my  rifle.  How  long  were  they  kept  there? 
For  nearly  an  hour. 

After  that  did  he  say  anything  about  firing?  He  said  he  would 
have  to  fire. 

Did  the  officer  say  anything?  He  said  he  was  a  poor  farmer's 
son,  that  he  was  sorry  he  was  led  into  it.    He  asked  to  be  allowed 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  391 


to  say  his  prayers.  The  Quartermaster  gave  him  permission  to  say 
his  prayers,  and  he  knelt  clown. 

While  the  officer  was  doing  this,  what  was  Quartermaster  Flood 
doing;  had  he  the  torch  in  his  hand?    Yes,  all  the  time. 

Sinning  on  them?  Yes. 

When  the  officer  got  up?   He  was  crying  when  he  got  up. 

Did  Quartermaster  Flood  give  any  orders?  He  gave  orders  to 
present  and  fire,  and  we  obeyed  the  order. 

How  many  of  you?  About  five  it  was.  Witness  further  said  that 
the  officer  fell  down,  but  the  civilian  did  not.  The  Quartermaster 
gave  a  second  order  to  fire,  and  the  civilian  fell,  but  did  not  appear 
to  be  quite  dead.  The  Quartermaster  gave  the  order  to  shoot  at 
him  again,  which  I  did. 

Witness  then  gave  evidence  relating  to  the  shooting  of  Lieutenant 
Worswick  and  the  man  Dockery. 

Private  Joseph  Murphy,  of  the  oth  Battalion  Royal  Dublin  Fusiliers, 
said  he  was  in  the  party,  and  went  down  to  the  malthouse  at  12 
o'clock  on  the  night  of  April  28.  Witness  was  on  duty  at  a  window, 
and  a  strange  officer  came  to  him  and  opened  the  window.  He 
leaned  out,  and  then  drew  in  his  head  again  and  said  to  the  men  on 
duty:  "Are  you  Irishmen?"  They  said  they  were,  and  he  asked 
them  were  they  not  ashamed  of  themselves  to  fire  on  Irishmen. 
They  said  they  were  not. 

Witness  then  described  how  Lieutenant  Lucas  and  Rice  were 
placed  against  the  window  before  being  shot.  Lucas  was  asked  for 
his  name  and  said  he  was  Lieutenant  Lucas,  of  King  Edward's 
Horse,  and  that  he  came  from  America.  Witness  noticed  that  when 
he  took  off  his  coat  the  inside  clothing  was  very  "raggy."  After 
praying,  he  asked  the  Quartermaster-Sergeant  for  a  chance,  saying 
he  was  led  into  it.  Later  they  met  an  officer  and  a  civilian.  They 
were  both  challenged  twice,  but  did  not  reply,  and  the  guard  was 
ordered  to  cover  them.  The  Quartermaster-Sergeant  then  asked 
them  what  was  their  business.  Then  they  both  looked  at  one 
another  and  made  no  reply. 

The  officer  clapped  his  hands  and  said, "  You  are  Sinn  Feiners?  "  The 
Quartermaster-Sergeant  "ground  his  teeth  and  said  'No;  we  are  not.' " 
The  officer  rushed  at  the  Quartermaster-Sergeant  and  upset  him.  The 
guard  then  fired  of  their  own  accord,  and  the  two  men  fell  dead. 

The  President  said  it  was  only  fair  to  the  deceased  officers  to  read 
a  statement  which  Captain  Campbell  had  signed. 


392   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


This  statement  was  to  the  effect  that  Second  Lieutenant  Lucas 
joined  the  Reserve  Squadron  after  being  in  an  Officers'  Training 
Corps  in  April,  1915,  and  was  attached  to  the  British  Expeditionary 
Force.  He  was  signaling  officer  to  the  regiment,  and  was  wounded 
in  France  and  invalided  home,  joining  the  Reserve  in  December, 
1915,  or  January,  1916.  Since  that  time  he  (Captain  Campbell) 
had  known  both  Lieutenant  Lucas  and  his  wife  well.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  a  public  school  and  went  to  a  University;  he  then  went 
out  to  Canada  as  schoolmaster.  He  left  that  and  went  on  to  the 
Montreal  Stock  Exchange,  and  made  a  lot  of  money  there.  He  mar- 
ried a  Canadian  lady,  and  their  present  address  was  23  McGregor 
Street,  Montreal,  Canada.  Mrs.  Lucas  showed  him  (Captain  Camp- 
bell) a  letter  from  Captain  Lucas's  commanding  officer  offering 
Lieutenant  Lucas  (who  was  promoted  a  few  days  before)  the  Adju- 
tancy of  the  regiment.  Regarding  Lieutenant  Worswick,  he  joined 
at  the  Curragh  on  October  4,  1915.  From  that  day  he  had  known 
him  well,  and  he  was  a  steady,  hard-working  man.  He  had  traveled 
a  good  deal,  and  had  some  property  in  Canada.  Both  officers  bore 
an  exemplary  character. 

This  concluded  the  case  for  the  prosecution  and 

After  hearing  evidence  for  the  defense, 

The  Court  considered  the  case  and 

The  President  announced  that  they  found  the  prisoner  not  guilty. 


CHAPTER  LIX 


The  Triumph  of  Defeat 

IT  is  not  necessary  to  linger  over  the  last  scenes  of  the 
Rebellion.  One  would  fain  draw  a  veil  over  this  phase 
of  the  rising,  were  it  not  for  the  inspiring  examples  of 
heroic  self-sacrifice,  as  the  Republicans  offered  their  lives 
before  liberty's  fane.  For,  while  the  Republic  of  Ireland 
sank  temporarily  into  the  bloody  cauldron  of  defeat,  the  flam- 
ing torch  of  liberty,  lighted  at  the  burning  pyre  of  Ireland's 
capital,  shone  forth  once  more  over  the  land,  shedding  hope 
and  grim  determination  and  awakening  the  sons  of  the  nation 
from  the  long  slumber  that  for  years  had  settled  on  the 
land. 

That  the  fight  had  ended  in  temporary  defeat  was  obvious 
to  the  leaders  on  Friday,  but  they  fought  through  the  night 
and  not  until  Saturday,  April  29,  did  President  Pearse  de- 
cide to  surrender  in  order  to  prevent  the  further  sacrifice  of 
non-belligerents,  men,  women  and  children,  and  of  the  lives  of 
the  men  who  were  acting  under  his  orders. 

The  cordon  of  the  British  was  now  drawn  tight  around 
the  center  of  the  city  and  those  other  places  where  the 
Republicans  were  entrenched.  The  artillery  had  been  rein- 
forced, and  from  50,000  to  60,000  English  troops  were  in  the 
city.  At  every  possible  point  of  vantage,  on  roof-tops,  on 
walls,  and  at  street  corners,  lines  of  British  soldiers  were 
firing  volley  after  volley,  not  so  much  at  the  rebels  as  in 
their  direction,  so  as  to  make  even  an  attempt  at  a  sortie 
impossible.  Parks  of  artillery  were  sending  showers  of  shells, 
incendiary  and  shrapnel,  bursting  over  the  Irish  positions, 
and  thick  heavy  black  clouds  of  smoke  were  pouring  slowly 
skyward  in  all  directions  from  the  hundreds  of  buildings  that 
were  being  destroyed  by  the  flames. 


394    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Shortly  after  noon  on  Saturday  a  Red  Cross  nurse  brought 
to  General  Maxwell  a  message  from  President  Pearse,  asking 
what  terms  would  be  considered  for  a  surrender.  To  this 
the  British  commandant  replied  that  only  unconditional 
surrender  would  be  considered.  An  appointment  was  there- 
upon made,  and,  at  a  quarter  to  four  that  afternoon,  Presi- 
dent Pearse  formally  surrendered  to  the  British  in  Tom 
Clarke's  tobacco  store  in  Parnell  Street.  He  wrote  and 
signed  the  document  of  the  surrender,  which  was  also  signed 
by  Connolly  and  MacDonagh.    The  document  follows: 

In  order  to  prevent  the  further  slaughter  of  unarmed  people,  and 
in  the  hope  of  saving  the  lives  of  our  followers,  now  surrounded  and 
hopelessly  outnumbered,  Members  of  the  Provisional  Committee 
present  at  Headquarters  have  agreed  to  an  unconditional  surrender, 
and  the  Commanders  of  all  units  of  the  Republicans  Forces  will 
order  their  followers  to  lay  down  their  arms. 

(Signed)  P.  H.  Pearse 
29th  April,  1916,  3.45  p.m. 

I  agree  to  these  conditions  for  the  men  only  under  my  own  com- 
mand in  the  Moore  Street  District  and  for  the  men  in  the  St. 
Stephen's  Green  Command. 

James  Connolly, 

April  29/16. 

There  are  one  or  two  points  in  the  statement  signed  by 
President  Pearse  that  should  not  be  overlooked.  He  gives 
as  one  of  his  reasons  for  his  surrender  the  desire  to  prevent 
the  further  slaughter  of  unarmed  people.  It  has  been  as- 
sumed in  some  quarters  that  this  referred  to  the  fact  that 
many  of  the  men  who  were  fighting  with  him  were  inade- 
quately armed.  While  it  was  true  that  arms  were  not 
plentiful,  this  assumption  is  incorrect.  What  President 
Pearse  referred  to  were  the  atrocities  that  were  taking  place 
all  over  the  city,  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  being 
shot  by  the  military  without  any  provocation.  It  is  not  in 
the  least  likely  that  President  Pearse  would  refer  to  the 
Volunteers  as  "unarmed  people."    If  further  proof  is  needed, 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  395 


it  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  he  proceeds  to  mention  his 
own  followers,  "now  surrounded  and  hopelessly  outnumbered." 

There  was  one  last  scene  at  this  point  that  will  long  be 
remembered.  Just  before  the  surrender,  Tom  Clarke  made 
a  last  stand  in  the  Rotunda  Gardens  at  the  head  of  O'Con- 
nell  Street,  with  a  number  of  his  men.  He  knew  that  the 
surrender  was  a  matter  of  minutes,  and  yet,  having  fought 
his  way  through  the  cordon  to  this  point,  refused  to  throw 
down  his  arms  while  the  fight  was  still  on.  The  English 
seemed  to  fear  the  grand  old  veteran,  and,  while  he  and  his 
men  were  fired  on  from  scores  of  points,  they  seemed  to 
bear  charmed  lives.  Then  came  the  surrender,  and  Tom 
and  his  men,  game  to  the  last,  laid  down  their  arms. 

Immediately  they  were  surrounded  by  the  victorious 
English  troops,  who  spared  no  taunt  and  no  insult  to  their 
defeated  enemy.  When  Clarke  was  disarmed  and  helpless 
in  their  power,  they  vented  in  full  their  spite  on  him,  and 
manhandled  him  in  so  outrageous  a  manner  that  their  own 
officers  were  forced  to  interfere.  Thus  was  the  gallantry 
of  Tommy  Atkins  once  more  illustrated.  During  all  that 
afternoon  and  through  the  long  hours  of  the  night  the  Irish 
prisoners  were  held  in  the  Rotunda  Gardens,  soaked  by  the 
heavy  dew,  weary,  sleepless,  and  hungry,  and  even  a  drink  of 
water  was  refused  them. 

The  surrender  of  President  Pearse  and  his  command  vir- 
tually brought  the  Rebellion  to  an  end,  but  there  were  several 
other  sections  that  did  not  accept,  or  did  not  hear  the  news 
of,  the  surrender  on  Saturday.  Some  little  time  after  the 
first  surrender,  Thomas  MacDonagh  added  his  name  to  the 
document  in  the  following  manner: 

April  30th,  1016. 

On  consultation  with  Commandant  Ceannt  and  other  officers,  I 
have  decided  to  agree  to  unconditional  surrender  also. 

Thomas  MacDonagh. 


The  Republicans  in  the  Stephen's  Green  section  surrendered 
also  on  Saturday,  but  the  Countess  Markievicz,  who  was 


396   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


in  command  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  continued 
the  fight  until  Sunday.  On  that  day,  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  Major  Wheeler,  accompanied  by  a  force  of 
military,  went  to  the  College  by  appointment  and  was  re- 
ceived by  the  Countess.  She  was,  it  is  reported,  still  wear- 
ing top  boots,  breeches,  service  tunic,  and  a  Fianna  hat.  In 
the  presence  of  the  military  she  first  shook  hands  with  her 
own  officers,  and  then  produced  her  revolver,  which  was 
inclosed  in  a  case.  After  affectionately  kissing  the  weapon, 
she  handed  it  to  Major  Wheeler,  together  with  a  quantity 
of  ammunition.  The  prisoners  taken  at  this  place  num- 
bered less  than  one  hundred,  and  included  a  number  of  girls. 
Practically  all  of  the  others  were  members  of  the  Fianna. 

The  men  at  Jacob's  Factory  also  surrendered  on  Sunday. 
It  was  a  member  of  the  Carmelite  Order  from  Whitefriar 
Street  church  who  induced  the  men  here  to  yield.  He  was 
hoisted  into  the  building  by  means  of  a  rope  let  down  from 
one  of  the  lower  windows,  and  on  Sunday  night  the  garri- 
son, leaving  their  flag  flying,  marched  out  in  military  forma- 
tion and  surrendered.  The  surrender  in  the  South  Dublin 
Union  was  also  made  on  Sunday,  after  Commandant  Ceannt 
had  held  a  conference  with  his  men,  as  related  later.  The 
Republicans  at  the  Four  Courts  surrendered  on  Saturday. 

There  was,  however,  fight  still  left  in  the  rebels,  even  after 
the  surrender  of  the  leaders.  There  were  many  who  stated 
that  they  would  never  surrender,  and  these  kept  the  battle 
going  in  many  districts  until  the  middle  of  the  following 
week.  This  was  particularly  the  case  in  the  Ringsend  dis- 
trict. De  Valera,  who  was  in  command  at  Boland's  Mills, 
surrendered  on  Sunday,  but  many  of  his  men  refused  to  do 
so,  and  kept  up  the  fight  along  the  railroad  line  until  they 
were  either  killed  or  were  able  to  make  their  escape.  De 
Valera  surrendered  against  the  wishes  of  his  own  men,  and 
did  so  only  because  he  thought  that  there  was  a  chance  of 
saving  their  lives.  That  De  Valera  did  not  think  there  was 
any  hope  for  his  own  life  is  shown  by  the  statement  he  made 
after  his  surrender.    According  to  the  account  printed  in  the 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  397 


Tory  Irish  Times,  De  Yalera,  after  he  had  surrendered, 
turned  to  the  British  officers  and  said:  " Shoot  me  if  you 
will,  but  arrange  for  my  men."  The  account  continues: 
"Then  he  added,  walking  up  and  down:  'If  only  the  people 
had  come  out  with  knives  and  forks!'" 

In  the  same  paper  are  given  some  particulars  relating  to 
the  conditions  during  the  week  in  the  suburban  districts 
of  the  city.  The  people  in  Phibsboro  were  kept  within 
the  cordon,  while  the  people  in  Glasnevin  were  rigidly  ex- 
cluded, and  only  on  the  most  urgent  business  could  per- 
mission be  obtained  to  pass.  Nevertheless,  many  of  the 
rebel  scouts  from  the  northern  part  of  the  county,  and  par- 
ticularly girl  scouts,  managed  to  get  through  the  cordon 
and  even  into  the  Post  Office  itself.  On  Thursday  it  became 
apparent  that  something  approaching  a  food  famine  was 
imminent.  The  alarm,  we  read,  was  instantaneous.  Im- 
mediately the  provision  shops  in  the  district  were  besieged, 
and  the  flour  mills  at  the  Cross  Gims  Bridge  were  crowded 
by  people  anxious  to  secure  a  supply  for  their  families.  The 
report  in  The  Irish  Times  says: 

The  butcher  shops  were  soon  cleared,  and  the  provision  stores 
were  sold  out  by  Saturday.  Many  people  went  out  to  the  Finglass 
Village,  where  the  local  butchers  did  a  tremendous  trade.  While 
the  food  crisis  was  in  progress,  the  anxiety  of  the  residents  of  this 
district  was  increased  by  the  alarming  rumors  which  were  in  con- 
stant circulation  as  to  alleged  happenings  in  the  city.  The  rumors, 
needless  to  say,  became  more  alarming  as  they  were  passed  from  one 
group  to  another,  and  all  of  the  time  there  was  nothing  official, 
nothing  definite.  As  night  fell  the  anxiety  was  not  eased.  The 
constant  sniping,  the  occasional  big-gun  firing,  and  the  sky  lit  up 
by  the  reflection  from  some  big  building,  all  combined  to  make  the 
night  more  terrible  even  than  the  day.  Many  pathetic  sights  were 
witnessed  in  connection  with  funerals  going  to  Glasnevin  Cemetery. 
Owing  to  the  rigid  regulations  in  force,  only  the  driver  of  the  hearse 
and  at  most  one  mourner  was  allowed  to  accompany  the  remains. 
But  many  were  driven  through  the  military  cordon  accompanied 
only  by  the  driver  of  the  hearse.  These  regulations  were  relaxed 
with  the  utmost  speed  by  the  military.    Up  to  Wednesday,  May 


398   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


3d,  the  residents  found  it  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  obtain  permits 
from  the  military  station  at  Cross  Guns  Bridge,  and  business  people 
were  subjected  to  long  delays  before  they  could  resume  duty  in  the 

city. 

The  district  from  the  Cross  Guns  Bridge  was  not  taken 
possession  of  by  the  Republicans,  but  the  district  leading 
east  towards  Drumcondra  along  the  Whitworth  Road  and  to 
Mount  joy  Square  was  occupied  at  several  points.  Long 
after  the  general  surrender  on  Saturday  the  sniping  in  this 
district  kept  the  military  restless.  Dorset  Street  and  neigh- 
boring streets  were  in  a  very  disturbed  state,  and  the  snip- 
ing continued  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  military  carried 
out  a  most  painstaking  search  in  every  house  in  the 
district. 

There  were  also  lively  engagements  in  Fairview.  On 
Easter  Monday  evening  the  Republicans  took  possession  of 
3allybough  Bridge  and  the  houses  around.  A  large  num- 
ber of  automobiles  were  also  seized.  The  same  tactics  were 
carried  out  at  x\nnesley  Bridge.  On  Wharf  Road,  the  Re- 
publicans took  possession  of  houses  at  Fairview  Corner  at 
Phibsboro  Avenue.  The  whole  of  the  Fairview  district 
was  in  the  possession  of  the  Republicans  until  Wednesday 
or  Thursday,  when,  after  a  stubborn  battle  with  the  mili- 
tary, they  were  driven  by  machine-gun  fire  from  some  of 
the  positions  they  held.  They  still  held  on,  however,  to  a 
great  many  points  of  vantage,  and  the  battle  was  still  rag- 
ing on  Saturday,  when  the  general  surrender  was  made.  In 
spite  of  the  active  part  they  had  taken  in  the  fighting, 
many  of  the  Republicans  managed  to  escape  on  Saturday 
evening,  and  successfully  eluded  the  search  parties  of  the 
military. 

By  the  end  of  the  following  week  the  Rebellion  of  1916 
was  at  an  end.  Dublin  was  in  ruins,  so  far  as  the  center  of 
the  city  was  concerned,  and  an  orgy  of  bloodthirsty  revenge 
had  already  commenced.  Search  parties  were  dispatched 
all  over  the  city,  arrests  were  being  made  by  the  thousands, 
men  and  women  were  being  deported  to  prisons  in  England 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  399 


and  Scotland,  and  the  full  rigors  of  martial  law  were  being 
enforced.  Of  those  who  took  an  actual  part  in  the  fighting, 
there  were  many  who  made  their  escape  to  America,  and 
it  is  from  the  stories  told  by  these  men  that  the  major  por- 
tion of  the  details  of  the  actual  fighting  have  been  secured. 


CHAPTER  LX 


A  Dublin  Rebel's  Story 

THE  man  who  told  the  following  story  used  simple 
and  direct  language,  devoid  of  all  embellishments. 
He  fought  throughout  the  week  in  the  South  Dublin 
Union  under  the  command  of  Eamonn  Ceannt.  He  told  of 
the  weeks  of  waiting  and  anxiety  that  the  Dublin  Volun- 
teers endured,  and  the  disappointment  that  was  everywhere 
expressed  when  the  countermanding  order  was  issued,  calling 
off  the  "maneuvers"  on  Easter  Sunday.  He  told  also 
of  the  conferences  at  Liberty  Hall,  and  the  rumors  that 
were  being  circulated  regarding  their  outcome.  At  nine 
o'clock  on  Easter  Monday  morning  he  received  the  call  to 
report  to  his  command,  and,  knowing  well  what  that  call 
meant,  he  immediately  canceled  all  other  appointments 
that  he  had  for  the  day  and  repaired  to  the  place  of  meeting. 
This  is  his  story  as  told  to  the  writer: 

We  occupied  the  South  Dublin  Union  at  11 :  45  on  Easter  Monday 
morning.  Within  an  hour  of  the  time  that  we  took  possession  of 
the  buildings,  we  were  attacked  by  the  military,  some  of  whom  came 
from  Richmond  Barracks  and  others  from  the  Royal  Hospital.  The 
fighting  with  these  took  place  in  the  rear  of  the  premises.  During 
the  rest  of  the  week  there  were  a  number  of  bloody  engagements, 
but,  in  spite  of  all  that  the  military  were  able  to  do,  we  held  all  of 
our  positions  up  to  the  time  of  the  surrender. 

The  fighting  was  very  stiff  during  the  Monday.  There  was  a 
general  engagement  proceeding  throughout  the  entire  day  and  well 
into  the  evening.  When  night  fell,  however,  we  were  forced  to  draw 
in  our  lines  owing  to  the  vastly  greater  number  of  the  enemy  and 
the  fact  that  the  darkness  made  it  the  more  difficult  to  defend  an 
extended  line.  Our  only  casualty  during  the  day's  fighting  was 
the  death  of  Jack  Owens.    There  were,  however,  a  large  number  of  the 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  401 


British  killed,  and  Commandant  Ceannt  sent  a  messenger  to  the 
enemy  asking  that  a  truce  be  declared  in  order  that  the  military 
might  take  away  their  dead.  To  this  the  reply  came  back  that 
there  would  be  no  truce,  owing  to  the  fact  that  we  had  killed  their 
major.  We  had  about  fifty  men  in  the  Union,  and  the  attacking 
force  usually  ranged  from  500  to  800.  We  were  never  quite  certain 
as  to  their  numbers,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  companies  attacking 
us  were  changed  frequently  during  the  week. 

After  we  had  beaten  the  military  off  on  the  Monday  night,  there 
was  a  cessation  of  the  harder  part  of  the  fighting.  On  Tuesday 
there  was  little  more  than  sniping  engagements,  in  which  it  seemed 
as  though  our  men  had  the  advantage.  We  lost  no  men  on  that 
day,  while  we  were  confident  that  several  of  the  military  were  either 
killed  or  wounded.  The  same  thing  happened  on  the  Wednesday, 
only  on  this  occasion  we  lost  poor  Frank  Burke,  who  was  killed  by 
a  sniper,  while  standing  near  a  window. 

The  biggest  fight  of  the  whole  week  took  place  on  the  Thursday. 
It  was  evident  that  the  military  were  determined  to  capture  the 
position,  and  they  prepared  for  the  attack  by  a  perfect  fusillade  of 
rifle  shots  poured  against  every  window  by  the  military  at  Richmond 
Barracks.  The  British  attacked  in  a  line  from  the  canal  basin,  the 
first  rush  taking  place  shortly  after  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  storm  of  lead  was  being  directed  against 
the  windows,  many  of  our  men  worked  at  these  points,  tin-owing 
hand  grenades  at  the  approaching  enemy.  It  is  a  positive  fact  that 
not  one  of  these  men  were  injured,  while  they  were  able  to  work 
havoc  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.    This  disposed  of  the  first  attack. 

The  English,  however,  were  not  to  be  beaten  off  at  the  first  re- 
pulse. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  suffered  severely,  they 
returned  to  the  attack,  and  this  time  they  were  able  to  penetrate 
into  the  building.  They  did  this  in  a  manner  that  is  worthy  of 
being  mentioned  in  detail. 

Evidently  thinking  it  impossible  to  get  into  the  building  in  the 
ordinary  manner,  owing  to  the  way  in  which  every  door  and  window 
was  guarded,  they  resolved  to  secure  entrance  in  another  way. 
After  some  fierce  fighting  they  succeeded  in  getting  ensconced  under 
a  wall  of  one  of  the  outer  buildings,  and  here,  working  under  a 
covering  shower  of  lead  from  their  comrades,  they  managed  to  bore 
a  hole  through  the  wall.  When  the  breach  was  big  enough  the  men 
who  had  made  it  stood  to  one  side  while  the  others  behind  them 


402   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


sent  one  volley  of  bullets  after  another  into  the  breach.  The  mili- 
tary then  charged. 

They  might  have  succeeded  in  this  maneuver  had  it  not  been  for 
the  fact  that  the  men  had  been  boring  at  a  wrong  part  of  the  wall, 
with  the  result  that  when  they  did  get  through  the  breach  they 
found  themselves  in  an  outer  corridor  instead  of  in  the  building 
proper.  We  held  the  upper  part  of  the  corridor  while  the  British 
held  the  lower  part,  and  it  was  at  this  point  that  some  of  the  hot- 
test of  the  fighting  was  done.  So  hot  was  the  fire  that  was  poured 
down  the  corridor  by  the  military  that  we  had  to  retreat.  During 
this  retreat,  in  which  we  backed  into  another  building  connected  by 
the  corridor,  one  of  our  men,  Cathal  Bruga,  a  very  fine  fellow  and  a 
well-known  Gaelic  Leaguer,  was  badly  wounded  and  fell  to  the 
ground. 

It  must  have  been  that  the  military  were  really  scared  of  the 
rebels,  for  they  called  on  us  to  surrender,  but  Cathal,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  he  was  badly  wounded,  called  back  "Never,  never!" 
and  then  while  he  was  lying  in  a  pool  of  his  own  blood,  we  heard 
him  singing  "God  Save  Ireland." 

We  were  retreating  into  the  other  building  at  this  time,  and  the 
bravery  of  the  man  so  impressed  us  that,  without  waiting  for  any 
orders,  we  all  dashed  forward  to  where  Cathal  was  lying.  The 
sudden  rush  took  the  military  by  complete  surprise,  and  we  forced 
them  back  in  a  hand-to-hand  engagement  in  which  fists  were  used 
as  freely  as  rifles.  But  we  were  seeing  red  and  they  were  not  able 
to  stand  up  to  us,  and  we  forced  them  so  far  back  that  we  were 
able  to  take  Cathal  up  on  our  shoulders  and  carry  him  into  the 
kitchen.  I  may  say  here  that  he  recovered  from  his  wounds  after- 
wards. 

The  sudden  attack  and  the  manner  in  which  they  had  crumpled 
up  under  it  were  such  that  the  military  were  wild  with  the  shame  of 
it.  We  could  hear  their  officers  cursing  and  swearing  at  them  and 
forcing  them  to  renew  the  attack.  When  they  saw  that  we  were 
caring  more  about  Cathal,  they  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
and  made  another  dash  at  us.  By  this  time  we  had  gained  the 
shelter  of  the  connecting  building  and  we  just  poured  lead  into  them 
for  all  we  were  worth.  They  were  forced  to  halt  in  their  charge, 
and  the  battle  settled  down  to  a  rifle  engagement. 

The  fighting  went  on  in  this  fashion  until  ten  o'clock  that  night, 
when  the  military  withdrew  from  the  building.    I  believe  that  they 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  403 


were  afraid  to  remain  in  it  during  the  night,  as  they  made  certain 
that  we  would  have  attacked  them,  which  is  exactly  what  we  were 
going  to  do.  As  things  were,  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  rush  our 
position  from  where  they  were  unless  they  were  prepared  to  lose 
scores,  if  not  hundreds,  of  men.  During  the  day's  fighting  we  had 
five  men  wounded.  Not  one  of  the  rebels  was  killed.  I  do  not 
know  how  the  British  suffered,  but,  at  the  lowest  estimate,  they 
must  have  lost  at  least  one  hundred  men.  They  were  the  attackers, 
and  had  to  come  out  into  the  open  against  good  marksmen  who  were 
fighting  from  behind  stone  walls  practically  all  of  the  time. 

There  were  two  British  soldiers  who  fell  inside  the  building  so 
badly  wounded  that  their  comrades  were  unable  to  take  them  away. 
They  left,  instead,  one  solitary  soldier  to  guard  them,  a  man  we 
could  have  captured  without  the  slightest  difficulty.  However,  we 
made  no  attempt  to  do  this,  and  the  fact  evidently  got  on  his  nerves, 
for,  after  he  had  been  holding  his  post  for  some  time  after  his  com- 
rades had  withdrawn,  he  voluntarily  offered  to  surrender.  We  told 
him  that  if  we  wanted  to  take  him  we  could  do  so,  but  that  he  could 
rest  assured  that  he  would  not  be  harmed,  as  we  did  not  want  either 
him  or  his  company. 

All  day  on  Friday  there  was  continuous  sniping  on  both  sides. 
We  were  well  content  with  the  position  in  which  we  were.  We  had 
been  able  to  beat  off  the  stiffest  of  the  British  attacks,  and  we  felt 
that  we  were  reasonably  secure.  Throughout  the  entire  day  the 
military  made  no  attempt  to  rush  us  out  of  the  buildings.  We  had 
plenty  of  ammunition  and  plenty  of  good  food,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing to  worry  us  in  the  least.  The  military  were  wasting  a  great  deal 
of  good  ammunition  on  the  walls  and  windows.  We  had  every  en- 
trance to  the  place  under  strong  guard,  and  there  was  little  or  no 
chance  of  the  enemy  getting  upon  us  without  our  knowledge. 

On  Friday  night  we  had  a  man  guarding  the  breach  that  had  been 
made  in  the  wall.  While  he  was  on  duty  there,  he  heard  movements 
that  indicated  the  approach  of  the  enemy.  He  did  not  have  time 
to  get  back  to  the  rest  of  our  men,  and  he  was  afraid  that  if  he 
sounded  an  alarm  he  would  scare  the  British  away,  and,  after  being 
more  or  less  inactive  all  day,  this  was  the  last  thing  that  any  of  us 
desired. 

So  he  waited  until  the  enemy  came  up  to  the  breach.  He  heard 
the  officer  whispering  to  his  men  to  get  through  the  hole.  Our  man 
held  his  rifle  over  his  head  and  waited.    As  the  first  man  got  through 


404   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

the  rifle  swung  down  on  his  head.  The  second  man  must  have 
thought  that  his  comrade  had  stumbled  and  fallen,  for  he  came  right 
on  after  him.  By  this  time  our  man  had  had  time  to  level  his  rifle, 
and  the  second  man  dropped  with  a  bullet  through  his  body.  At 
that  the  rest  drew  back,  for  the  officer  in  charge  was  heard  swearing 
at  them,  urging  them  to  go  on  into  the  building  and  then  cursing 
them  for  cowards.  The  sound  of  the  shot  had  aroused  the  rest  of 
us,  and  we  lost  no  time  in  getting  to  the  scene  of  action.  But  when 
we  arrived,  the  military  were  nowhere  to  be  seen.  Thus  another 
attack  had  failed. 

There  was  nothing  but  sniping  on  the  Saturday,  it  being  evident 
that  the  British,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  were  greatly  superior 
to  us  in  numbers,  had  no  relish  to  repeat  the  experiences  of  Thurs- 
day. A  vigilant  watch  was  kept  all  day  and  all  night,  but  there  was 
no  attempt  made  to  rush  our  positions.  All  of  us  were  in  the  best 
of  spirits,  and  were  rapidly  settling  down  to  the  situation  like 
veterans. 

At  noon  on  Sunday  we  heard  of  the  surrender  of  the  leaders.  All 
of  us  were  bitterly  disappointed  when  we  heard  that  they  had  sur- 
rendered, as  there  was  not  a  man  among  us  who  would  not  have 
preferred  to  have  fought  it  out  to  a  finish.  It  was  our  belief  that 
the  best  thing  to  do  under  the  circumstances  was  to  fight  it  out 
anyway,  regardless  of  what  had  happened  to  the  leaders  of  the  Rebel- 
lion. We  could  have  lasted  for  a  month  at  the  least.  We  were  well 
supplied,  and  were  in  an  excellent  position,  and  I  believe  we  would 
have  made  a  long  stand  even  if  the  military  had  brought  artillery 
to  their  aid.  The  British  who  had  attacked  us  during  the  week 
had  a  number  of  machine  guns  with  them,  and  we  were  getting  ac- 
customed to  the  conditions,  and  would  have  lasted  for  weeks,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  we  did  not  have  bayonets  or  machine  guns. 
It  was  stated  in  some  of  the  papers  that  we  had  a  machine  gun. 
This  is  not  true.  Eamonn  Ceannt  rigged  up  a  dummy  that  looked 
so  much  like  the  real  thing  that  the  English  did  not  dare  to  attempt 
an  attack  on  the  side  of  the  buildings  where  it  was  placed. 

At  three  o'clock  on  the  Sunday  afternoon  Commandant  Ceannt 
ordered  the  men  lined  up.  He  then  told  us  that  Commandant  Mac- 
Donagh  had  ordered  surrender.  He  said  that  he  would  leave  the 
decision  to  us,  and  that  all  he  would  do  would  be  to  ask  that  we 
acted  as  one  in  the  matter.  He  said  that,  if  we  were  to  surrender 
as  an  army,  we  would  stand  a  chance.    This  decided  the  majority 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  405 


of  the  men.  The  leaders  had  surrendered  and  it  was  obviously  im- 
possible for  us  to  maintain  a  fight  with  any  chance  of  success  against 
the  entire  British  garrison.  It  was,  therefore,  decided  that  we  would 
surrender. 

Ceannt  took  off  his  hat. 

"I  have  no  doubt  as  to  what  will  happen  to  me,"  he  said.  "It 
was  the  will  of  Providence.  If  we  did  not  succeed,  there  are  better 
men  who  will." 


CHAPTER  LXI 


Other  Provincial  Centers 

NOTHING  could  better  illustrate  the  disastrous  effect 
of  Eoin  MacNeill's  countermanding  order  than  the 
success  which  attended  the  various  uprisings  through- 
out the  country,  when  the  news  was  eventually  received 
that  Dublin  was  in  rebellion.  The  few  companies  of  Volun- 
teers to  which  the  news  did  penetrate  soon  held  complete 
control  of  the  situation.  What  the  result  would  have  been 
had  the  original  orders  not  been  countermanded  and  the 
entire  country  had  risen,  is  easy  to  imagine. 

A  special  messenger  brought  the  word  from  Dublin  to 
Galway  that  the  Republic  had  been  declared.  The  Volun- 
teers immediately  mobilized  under  Captain  Mellows,  a 
magnificent  type  of  young  Irishman.  The  mobilization 
took  place  at  the  Town  Hall  of  Galway  publicly,  and  in 
spite  of  the  local  police,  who,  terrified,  remained  hidden  in 
their  barracks.  After  the  mobilization,  the  Volunteers, 
to  the  number  of  close  on  1000,  marched  to  the  Model  Farm, 
run  by  the  miscalled  Irish  Board  of  Agriculture,  where  they 
halted,  after  taking  possession  of  the  farm.  Here  they  re- 
mained for  the  night. 

On  Wednesday  morning  they  resumed  their  march  to 
Loughrey,  it  being  their  intention,  of  course,  to  march  to 
Dublin.  They  had  a  brief  encounter  with  the  police,  the 
result  being  that  some  of  the  latter  were  wounded.  On  the 
afternoon  of  that  day  the  Volunteers  encamped  at  Moyode 
Castle,  owned  by  the  absentee  Lady  Ardilaun,  a  bitter 
opponent  of  Irish  nationality.  While  they  were  there,  a 
number  of  policemen  were  captured,  and  kept  in  confine- 
ment in  the  castle.  The  Volunteers  remained  in  this  place 
for  the  night. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


407 


On  Thursday  morning  a  number  of  police  from  Athenry 
made  an  attempt  to  storm  the  castle,  with  the  result  that 
they  were  not  only  severely  repulsed,  but  the  entire  force 
was  chased  by  the  Republicans  all  the  way  back  to  Athenry, 
a  distance  of  four  miles.  The  police  were  mounted  on  cycles, 
and  rode  for  their  lives.  The  rebels  who  took  up  the  chase 
also  had  cycles,  and  were  gaining  on  the  police  at  every  few 
yards.  As  it  was,  the  police  managed  to  fling  themselves 
into  their  barracks  only  in  the  nick  of  time. 

In  the  meantime  a  British  cruiser  in  Galway  Bay  was 
blazing  away  in  the  direction  of  the  Republicans,  but  none 
of  the  shells  came  anywhere  near  them.  On  Friday  morn- 
ing, just  as  the  march  was  about  to  be  resumed,  word  was 
received  that  Dublin  was  doomed,  that  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try had  not  risen,  and  that  a  force  of  2000  British  soldiers, 
with  machine  guns  and  artillery,  was  only  six  miles  away. 
The  Republicans  then  marched  to  Lime  Park,  but  on  the 
way  there  another  message  was  received  to  the  effect  that 
Dublin  was  in  flames  and  that  the  rising  was  at  an  end. 
The  Republicans  thereupon  agreed  to  disband. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  what  took  place  at  Enniscorthy.  The 
news  that  the  Republic  had  been  proclaimed  in  Dublin  did 
not  reach  the  County  Wexford  until  the  Thursday  of  Easter 
Week.  Immediately  on  receipt  of  the  message,  the  Volun- 
teers mobilized  in  the  Athenaeum,  one  of  the  princ  ipal  build- 
ings of  the  town.  The  building  was  seized  and  utilized  as 
Republican  headquarters.  All  of  the  principal  thorough- 
fares were  guarded  and  patrolled,  while  forces  were  dispatched 
to  guard  the  approaches  to  the  town.  About  twenty  auto- 
mobiles were  commandeered,  together  with  a  supply  of 
petrol. 

At  a  quarter-past  six  that  evening  arms  and  ammunition 
were  served  out  to  recruits  for  the  rebel  forces,  and  the 
Republican  flag  of  green,  white,  and  orange  was  hoisted 
at  headquarters.  A  strong  force  of  the  Republicans  pro- 
ceeded to  the  railroad  station,  and  a  train  from  Wexford  to 
Arklow  was  held  up  and  seized.    The  telegraph  and  tele- 


408   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


phone  wires  were  then  cut,  and  the  railroad  lines  at  each 
end  of  the  town  were  torn  up,  thus  effectively  cutting  off 
all  chance  of  a  suprise  attack  on  the  part  of  the  British.  A 
proclamation  was  issued,  stating  that  the  Republic  had 
been  proclaimed  in  Dublin  and  calling  for  recruits.  All 
the  saloons  were  closed,  and  a  volunteer  force  of  police  kept 
perfect  control  of  the  streets  and  the  city  generally. 

Shortly  after  seven  o'clock  an  encounter  took  place  be- 
tween the  Republicans  and  the  police,  with  the  result  that 
the  latter  suffered  a  complete  defeat.  The  R.  I.  C.  bar- 
racks, which  had  been  barricaded  by  the  police,  was  stormed 
and  taken,  the  police  being  made  prisoners.  The  police  made 
a  very  poor  defense,  and  were  evidently  suffering  badly  from 
nerves.  During  the  attack  a  little  girl  of  eight  years,  named 
Foley,  was  shot  in  the  back  by  one  of  the  policemen.  With 
the  capture  of  the  barracks,  Enniscorthy  was  completely 
in  the  possession  of  the  Republicans. 

It  having  been  decided  that  a  number  of  the  Republican 
soldiers  should  march  on  Dublin,  while  a  small  party  re- 
mained to  hold  the  town,  supplies  of  all  kinds  were  gathered 
in.  A  proclamation  calling  for  the  surrender  of  all  arms 
was  published,  and  in  this  way  the  supply  of  munitions  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Volunteers  was  considerably  augmented. 
In  addition  a  house  to  house  search  was  made,  which  pro- 
vided more  rifles  and  revolvers.  The  local  cycle  stores 
were  also  visited,  and  cycles,  tires,  and  automobile  acces- 
sories were  commandeered. 

Previous  to  these  operations,  and  on  the  afternoon  of 
Thursday,  Enniscorthy  Castle,  which  stands  on  an  eminence 
commanding  the  town,  was  captured  by  the  Republicans. 
The  town  was  now  in  a  thorough  state  of  defense,  and  a 
large  number  of  recruits  were  sworn  in  by  the  Republicans. 
Scouting  parties  of  the  Republicans  were  scouring  the  coun- 
try for  miles  around,  and  scores  of  young  men  returned  with 
them  to  take  up  arms  for  their  country.  The  streets  were 
policed  by  the  Republican  forces,  and  perfect  order  pre- 
vailed. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  409 


On  Friday  the  preparations  for  the  march  to  Dublin  were 
nearly  completed,  twenty-four  hours  after  the  word  had  been 
given.  The  men  remained  in  the  city  the  following  day, 
the  orders  being  to  start  the  march  on  Sunday  morning. 
On  Saturday  a  Volunteer  force  from  Enniscorthy  proceeded 
to  Ferns  by  automobile  and  took  possession  of  the  police 
barracks  there.  Throughout  the  day  there  was  great  en- 
thusiasm, and  by  Sunday  morning  a  large  force,  well  equipped, 
was  ready  to  proceed  to  the  relief  of  Dublin.  The  men 
attended  Mass  in  a  body,  and,  shortly  afterwards,  as  they 
were  lining  up  for  the  march,  news  was  brought  into  the 
town  that  Dublin  had  surrendered.  A  deputation,  con- 
sisting of  Father  FitzHenry,  Catholic  Administrator,  Canon 
Lyster,  Protestant  rector,  and  Chairman  of  the  Urban  Coun- 
cil, Patrick  O'Neill,  went  to  Wexford  to  interview  the  mili- 
tary. There  the  news  of  the  surrender  was  confirmed,  but 
the  leaders  in  Enniscorthy  still  refused  to  believe  it,  and 
declined  to  give  up  possession  of  the  town.  Instead  two  of 
them  went  by  automobile  to  Dublin,  where  they  were  taken 
to  President  Pearse.  On  their  return  to  Enniscorthy,  they 
yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  the  clergy  to  lay  down  their 
arms. 

It  is  thus  evident  that,  had  the  countermanding  order 
not  been  given,  all  the  south  of  Leinster  would  have  been 
in  Irish  hands.  Joined  by  the  men  from  Wexford  and  all 
the  surrounding  towns  and  villages,  the  Enniscorthy  Volun- 
teers would  have  been  knocking  at  the  gates  of  Dublin  by 
Wednesday  evening.  At  the  same  time  the  men  of  the  rest 
of  the  districts  around  the  capital  would  also  have  been 
there,  with  the  result  that  the  British  would  have  been  placed 
in  a  hopeless  position.  Dublin  would  have  been  saved,  and 
the  rising  would  have  been  crowned  with  victory. 

The  men  in  County  Louth  were  also  thrown  into  con- 
fusion by  Eoin  MacNeiU's  order.  In  County  Dublin  Thomas 
Ashe  covered  himself  and  his  command  with  glory  by  defeat- 
ing, on  Friday,  April  28,  165  policemen  at  Ashborne,  the 
Republican   force   amounting  to   only  43.  Commandant 


410   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Donal  O'Hannigan,  in  command  of  the  Louth  Volunteers, 
was  another  whose  plans  were  entirely  disorganized  by  the 
countermanding  order.  As  it  was,  he  and  his  men  remained 
in  the  field  for  over  a  week  before  disbanding.  But  the 
same  story  is  to  be  told  regarding  these  operations  also  —  the 
Irish  had  complete  command  of  the  situation  where  they 
received  President  Pearse's  second  orders,  but  these  were 
only  in  a  few  widely  scattered  districts  and  after  the  first 
golden  opportunity  had  been  lost. 

The  same  countermanding  order  created  endless  confusion 
in  the  City  and  County  of  Cork.  Here  the  men  were  sick 
with  suspense  for  several  days,  unable  to  get  news  from 
Dublin.  When  they  did  get  the  news  it  was  too  late,  as 
they  had,  on  the  request  of  their  clergy,  given  up  their 
arms.  Had  they  not  done  so,  the  same  succession  of  events 
as  took  place  in  Enniscorthy  might  have  been  chronicled. 
There  is  still  a  great  deal  to  be  explained  before  the  truth 
is  known  as  to  what  actually  did  happen  in  Cork  City.  A 
number  of  statements  have  been  issued,  particularly  by  the 
clergy,  but  none  of  them  make  the  matter  absolutely  clear. 

There  was  one  incident  of  the  Rebellion  that  took  place 
in  this  district  that  will  never  be  forgotten.  The  story  is 
best  told  by  a  writer  in  The  Catholic  Bulletin  of  Dublin, 
in  the  issue  dated  August,  1916.  It  deals  with  Thomas 
Kent,  who,  as  recorded  later,  was  executed  by  the  British 
for  high  treason  in  Cork  on  Tuesday  morning,  May  9.  The 
article  runs: 

Thomas  Kent  was  born  about  forty-five  years  ago  at  Bawnard, 
Castlelyons,  where  his  father,  David  Kent,  held  a  large  farm.  His 
mother,  Mary  Rice,  is  sister  of  Very  Rev.  Canon  Rice  of  Mitchels- 
town,  and  of  Mr.  Richard  Rice,  coroner,  Fermoy. 

In  the  early  morning  of  Tuesday  (May  2),  the  house  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  force  of  constabulary,  and  a  fierce  conflict  ensued,  dur- 
ing which  the  police  fired  over  a  hundred  shots,  seriously  wounding 
one  of  the  brothers,  David  Kent.  A  head  constable  having  been 
killed  in  the  struggle,  military  assistance  was  sent  for  to  Fermoy  and 
on  the  arrival  of  a  body  of  soldiers  with  a  machine  gun,  about  7  p.m., 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  411 


the  whole  family  including  the  mother,  aged  over  eighty,  were 
ordered  out  of  the  besieged  house,  with  their  hands  above  their 
heads,  and  placed  under  arrest  and  an  armed  guard.  Mother  and 
sons  were  removed  to  Fermoy  —  David  and  Richard,  badly  wounded 
—  to  the  military  hospital,  Tom,  William  and  the  mother  to  the 
barracks. 

Mrs.  Kent,  having  been  released  about  noon.  Tom  and  William 
were  next  morning  removed  under  strong  military  escort  to  Cork 
military  prison,  the  former  bootless  and  hatless.  Tried  by  court- 
martial  Tom  was  sentenced  to  death,  and  William  acquitted,  and  the 
devoted  brothers,  who  years  before  had  dreamed  dreams  of  Irish 
liberty  under  African  skies,  gazed  on  each  other  for  the  last  time  in 
the  dark  corridor  of  a  Cork  court. 

A  few  months  later,  in  January,  1917,  Mrs.  Kent,  the 
mother  of  these  brave  boys,  died  of  the  shock  of  these  ter- 
rible events. 


CHAPTER  LXII 


The  Blood-lust  of  the  English 

FROM  the  moment  that  they  embarked  on  the  Rebel- 
lion, there  was  not  one  of  the  leaders  who  was  not 
aware  that  failure  would  mean  death  at  the  hands  of 
the  English.  The  history  of  England  has  made  it  known 
to  the  world  that  such  qualities  as  clemency  and  justice 
hold  no  place  in  its  theory  of  Empire.  It  has  ever  been  the 
principle  of  the  rulers  of  England  to  mete  out  to  the  con- 
quered the  severest  punishment  it  is  in  their  power  to  inflict; 
their  gospel  is  the  gospel  of  frightfulness.  Nevertheless, 
the  acts  of  ruthless  savagery  that  added  one  more  bloody 
chapter  to  the  story  of  English  rule  in  Ireland  were  such 
that  a  wave  of  horror  and  indignation  went  around  the 
world,  and  for  all  time  blasted  the  hallow  pretense  that 
England  was  the  lover  of  the  liberties  and  the  upholder  of 
the  rights  of  the  small  nations. 

The  leaders  of  the  Rebellion  laid  down  their  arms,  and 
made  an  unconditional  surrender  when  they  were  hopelessly 
outnumbered  and  surrounded.  They  had  declared  war  in 
an  open  and  legal  manner;  they  had  been  at  war  with  Great 
Britain  for  seven  days,  during  which  that  war  had  been  car- 
ried on  between  the  two  combatants  in  a  manner  in  no  way 
different  from  the  conditions  which  prevailed  in  France  and 
Flanders  and  along  other  lines  in  the  war  in  Europe.  There- 
fore, there  can  be  no  sincere  reason  for  denying  that  these 
men  who  surrendered  and  placed  themselves  in  the  hands 
of  the  British  were  prisoners  of  war. 

The  nation  that  had  cried  out  in  pious  horror  at  the  exe- 
cution of  Edith  Cavell,  a  proven  spy,  by  the  Germans,  did 
not  for  a  second  hesitate  to  line  up  their  prisoners  of  war 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  413 


behind  barrack  walls  and  shoot  them  down.  The  following 
order,  issued  by  General  Maxwell  on  May  11,  is  a  sufficient 
condemnation  of  the  acts  of  the  English  Government  and 
an  eloquent  illustration  of  the  kindly  and  humanitarian 
nature  of  the  English  system: 

In  view  of  the  gravity  of  the  Rebellion  and  its  connection  with 
German  intrigue  and  propaganda,  and  in  view  of  the  great  loss  of 
life  and  destruction  of  property  resulting  therefrom,  the  General 
Officer  Commanding-in-Chief  has  found  it  imperative  to  inflict  the 
most  severe  sentences  on  the  known  organizers  of  this  detestable 
rising  and  on  those  commandants  who  took  an  active  part  in  the 
actual  fighting  that  occurred.  It  is  hoped  that  these  examples  will 
be  sufficient  to  act  as  a  deterrent  to  intriguers,  and  to  bring  home 
to  them  that  the  murder  of  His  Majesty's  liege  subjects,  or  other 
acts  calculated  to  imperil  the  safety  of  the  Realm,  will  not  be 
tolerated. 

It  has  been  stated  that  General  Maxwell,  when  he  received 
his  orders  from  Lord  Kitchener,  was  told  to  show  no  mercy 
to  the  Irish  when  he  got  them  into  his  power.  Whether 
this  was  the  case  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  Maxwell  and  the 
English  Government  did  not  fail  to  exact  the  fullest  ven- 
geance on  the  Irishmen  who  fell  into  their  hands  after  the 
surrender.  It  may  also  be  stated,  and  on  the  best  of 
authority,  that  most  of  the  men  executed  were  in  a  half- 
starved  condition  when  lined  up  before  the  firing  squad,  and 
more  than  one  was  suffering  the  agonies  of  thirst. 

The  following  notice  was  officially  communicated  from  the 
Command  Headquarters,  Parkgate,  Dublin,  on  Wednesday, 
May  3: 

Three  signatories  of  the  notice  proclaiming  the  Irish  Republic, 
P.  H.  Pearse, 
T.  MacDonagh,  and 
T.  J.  Clarke, 

have  been  tried  by  Field  General  Courts-martial  and  sentenced  to 
death.  The  sentence  having  been  duly  confirmed,  the  three  above- 
mentioned  men  were  shot  this  morning. 


414   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Nothing  could  be  more  appealingly  eloquent  than  the 
letter  which  President  Pearse,  a  few  hours  before  his  exe- 
cution, penned  to  his  mother.    It  is  as  follows: 

KlLMAINHAM  PRISON, 

tit  n it  Dublin,  May  3,  1916. 

My  dearest  Mother: 

I  have  been  hoping  up  to  now  it  would  be  possible  to  see  you 
again,  but  it  does  not  seem  possible.  Good-bye,  dear,  dear  mother. 
Through  you  I  say  good-bye  to  "Wow  Wow"  [a  sister],  Mary,  Brigid, 
Willie,  Miss  B.,  Miceal,  cousin  Maggine  and  everyone  at  St.  Enda's. 
I  hope  and  believe  Willie  and  the  St.  Enda  boys  will  be  all  safe. 

I  have  written  two  papers  about  financial  affairs  and  one  about 
my  books  which  I  want  you  to  get.  With  them  are  a  few  poems 
which  I  want  added  to  the  poems  in  MS.  in  my  bookcase.  You 
asked  me  to  write  a  little  poem  which  would  seem  to  be  said  by 
you  about  me.  I  have  written  it,  and  a  copy  is  in  Arbor  Hill  Bar- 
rack with  other  papers. 

I  just  received  Holy  Communion.  I  am  happy,  except  for  the 
great  grief  of  parting  from  you.  This  is  the  death  I  should  have 
asked  for  if  God  had  given  me  the  choice  of  all  deaths  —  to  die  a 
soldier's  death  for  Ireland  and  for  freedom.  We  have  done  right. 
People  will  say  hard  things  of  us  now,  but  later  on  will  praise  us. 
Do  not  grieve  for  all  this,  but  think  of  it  as  a  sacrifice  which  God 
asked  of  me  and  of  you. 

Good-bye  again,  dear  mother.    May  God  bless  you  for  your  great 

love  for  me  and  for  your  great  faith,  and  may  He  remember  all  you 

have  so  bravely  suffered.    I  hope  soon  to  see  papa,  and  in  a  little 

while  we  shall  be  all  together  again.   I  have  not  words  to  tell  you  of 

my  love  for  you  and  how  my  heart  yearns  to  you  all.    I  will  call  to 

you  in  my  heart  at  the  last  moment.  ~T  ~> 

J  J  Your  son  Pat. 

In  reply  to  the  request  from  his  mother  that  he  would 
write  a  poem  for  her,  President  Pearse  sent  to  her  the  fol- 
lowing verses: 

Dear  Mary,  thou  who  saw  thy  first-born  Son 
Go  forth  to  die  amidst  the  scorn  of  men, 
Receive  my  first-born  son  into  thy  arms 
Who  also  goeth  forth  to  die  for  men; 
And  keep  him  by  thee  till  I  come  to  him. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  415 


Dear  Mary,  I  have  shared  thy  sorrows, 
And  soon  shall  share  thy  joys. 

(Signed)  P.  H.  P. 

The  last  letter  of  Thomas  MacDonagh  to  his  wife,  written 
at  midnight  after  hearing  the  sentence  of  death  passed  upon 
him,  is  also  a  document  of  unusual  interest.    It  is  as  follows: 

Kilmaixham  Jail, 
Midnight,  Tuesday. 

I,  Thomas  MacDonagh,  having  heard  the  sentence  of  court-martial 
held  on  me  to-day,  declare  that  in  all  my  acts  for  which  I  have  been 
arraigned  I  have  been  actuated  by  only  one  motive,  the  love  of  my 
country  —  the  desire  to  make  her  a  sovereign  State.  I  still  hope  and 
trust  that  my  acts  may  have  for  her  some  lasting  freedom  and  happi- 
ness. I  am  to  die  at  dawn  (3:  30  a.m.),  May  3.  I  am  ready  to  die, 
and  thank  God  that  I  died  in  so  holy  a  cause.  My  country  will 
reward  my  deed  richly. 

On  April  30  I  was  astonished  to  receive  a  message  from  P.  H. 
Pearse,  Commandant  General  of  the  Army  of  the  Irish  Republic,  an 
order  to  surrender  to  the  British  General.  I  did  not  obey  that 
order,  as  it  came  from  a  prisoner.  I,  as  then  in  supreme  command  of 
the  Irish  army,  consulted  with  my  second  in  command,  and  decided 
to  confirm  this  order.  I  knew  that  it  would  involve  my  death  and 
the  death  of  the  other  leaders.  I  hoped  that  it  would  save  many 
true  men  among  our  followers  —  good  lives  for  Ireland.  God  grant 
that  it  has  done  so,  and  God  approve  our  deed.  For  myself  I  have 
no  regret.  The  one  bitterness  this  death  has  for  me  is  the  separa- 
tion it  brings  from  you,  my  dear  Muriel,  and  our  beloved  children, 
Donagh  and  Barbara.  It  breaks  my  heart  to  think  that  I  shall 
never  see  my  children  again;  but  I  have  not  wept  or  murmured.  I 
counted  the  cost  of  this,  and  I  am  ready  to  pay  it.  Muriel  has  been 
sent  for  here.  I  do  not  know  if  she  can  come.  She  may  have  no 
one  to  take  the  children  while  she  is  coming  —  if  she  can  come. 

I  have  insured  my  children  for  £100  each  in  the  United  Company; 
payment  of  the  premiums  to  end  at  my  death;  the  money  to  be 
paid  to  the  children  at  twenty-one.  I  ask  my  brother,  Joseph  Mac- 
Donagh, and  my  good  and  constant  friend,  David  Houston,  to  help 
my  poor  wife  in  those  matters. 

My  brother,  John,  who  came  with  me  and  stood  with  me  all  last 
week,  has  been  sent  away  from  here.   I  do  not  know  where  to.  God 


416   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


bless  him  and  my  other  brothers  and  sisters.  Assistance  has  been 
guaranteed  from  the  funds  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan,  and  other 
funds  to  be  collected  in  America  by  our  fellow-countrymen  there,  for 
the  dependents  of  those  who  fall  in  the  fight.  My  wife  and  I  have 
given  all  for  Ireland.  I  ask  my  friend,  D.  Houston,  to  see  Mr.  W. 
J.  Lyons,  the  publisher  of  my  latest  book,  "Literature  in  Ireland," 
and  to  see  that  its  publication  may  be  completed  for  my  wife  and 
family.  If  Joseph  Plunkett  survives  me,  and  is  a  free  man,  I  make 
him  with  my  wife  my  literary  executor.  Otherwise  my  wife  and 
David  Houston  will  take  charge  of  my  writings. 

Yesterday  at  my  court-martial,  in  rebutting  some  trifling  evidence, 
I  made  a  statement  as  to  my  negotiations  for  surrender  with  General 
Lowe.  In  hearing  it  read,  it  struck  me  afterwards  that  it  might 
sound  like  an  appeal.  I  made  no  appeal,  no  recantation,  no  apology 
for  my  acts.  In  what  I  said  I  hereby  claim  to  have  acted  honorably 
and  thoroughly  in  all  that  I  set  myself  to  do.  My  enemies  have 
treated  me  in  an  unworthy  manner;  but  let  it  pass.  It  is  a  great 
and  glorious  thing  to  die  for  Ireland,  and  I  will  forget  all  petty  an- 
noyances in  the  splendor  of  this.  When  my  son,  Donagh,  was  born, 
I  thought  that  to  him,  and  not  to  me,  would  this  be  given.  God  has 
been  kinder  to  me  than  I  hoped.  My  son  will  have  a  great  name, 
and  you,  my  darling  little  boy,  remember  me.  Kindly  take  my  hope 
and  purpose  for  my  deed.  For  your  sister  and  your  beloved  mother 
I  could  hope  to  live  longer;  but  you  will  recognize  this  thing  that 
I  have  done,  and  with  this  as  a  consequence  will  have  done  a  great 
thing  for  Ireland,  even  with  this  defeat,  and  have  won  the  first 
steps  of  her  freedom.  God  bless  you,  my  son,  and  my  darling  daugh- 
ter, Barbara.    I  loved  you  more  than  ever  child  has  been  loved. 

My  dearest  Muriel,  I  thank  you  a  thousand  times  for  all  you  have 
been  to  me.  I  have  only  one  trouble  in  leaving  life  —  leaving  you. 
Be  sure,  darling,  God  will  assist  you  and  bless  you.  I  send  you 
these  few  things  I  have  saved  out  of  this  war  for  you.  My  love  — 
till  we  meet  in  Heaven.  I  have  a  sure  faith  in  our  union  there.  I 
kiss  this  paper  as  it  goes  to  you.  I  have  just  heard  that  "they" 
have  not  been  able  to  reach  me.  Perhaps  it  is  better  so  —  yet 
Father  Aloysius  is  going  to  make  another  effort  to  reach  you. 

God  bless  and  sustain  you,  my  love;  but  for  your  suffering  this 

would  be  our  glory  and  joy.  _T  ,         .  . 

Your  loving  husband, 

Thomas  MacDonagh 

P.  S.  —  I  return  the  darlings'  photographs. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  417 


The  court-martial  of  MacDonagh  lasted  only  fifteen  min- 
utes. No  message  was  sent  to  his  wife,  and  he  was  not 
allowed  to  communicate  either  with  her  or  his  children. 
His  sister,  who  was  a  nun  in  a  convent  close  to  the  prison, 
was  the  only  relative  or  friend  allowed  by  the  military  to 
visit  the  condemned  man.  She  was  brought  by  the  mili- 
tary to  his  little  narrow  cell,  lighted  only  by  a  candle,  and 
during  the  time  that  she  was  with  him  a  sentry  with  loaded 
rifle  was  standing  beside  them.  It  was  she  who  took  his 
letter  to  his  wife. 

His  sister  gave  to  Tom  his  mother's  rosary  beads,  and  he 
placed  them  around  his  neck.  She  then  asked  the  sentry 
if  her  brother  might  have  some  water  with  which  to  wash 
himself,  but  this  was  refused.  He  went  to  his  death  as 
bravely  as  all  who  loved  him  knew  he  would  go,  whistling 
a  few  bars  of  a  hymn  as  he  went.  Just  as  his  sister  re- 
turned to  the  convent,  she  heard  the  volley  of  rifle  shots 
that  ended  her  brother's  life.  Between  the  time  that  she 
had  left  him  a  few  short  hours  before,  and  the  moment  when 
he  was  led  out  to  his  death,  Tom  spent  kneeling  before  his 
crucifix. 

The  first  intimation  his  widow  had  of  his  fate  was  the  glaring 
announcements  in  the  Dublin  evening  newspapers  that  day. 
She  later  received  an  order  from  General  Maxwell,  forbidding 
her  to  appear  in  public,  owing  to  the  sympathy  of  the  people 
for  her  and  her  two  little  fatherless  children. 

Tom  Clarke,  so  far  as  is  at  present  known,  did  not  leave 
any  letter  behind  him.  There  were  many  ugly  rumors 
current  for  days  after  the  surrender  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
been  beaten  to  death  by  the  military  after  they  had  him 
in  their  power  in  the  barracks.  The  only  document  that 
survives  him  is  the  entry  at  the  head  of  the  list  which  he 
opened  before  the  Rebellion,  and  which  he  called  the  ''Irish 
Volunteers'  Dependents'  Fund."  This  entry,  at  the  head  of 
the  sheet,  reads: 

Thomas  J.  Clarke,  for  the  relief  of  distress:  £3,100. 


418   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


This  is,  in  itself,  an  enduring  monument  to  the  foresight  and 

thoroughness  which  characterized  every  action  of  the  man. 

The  public  horror  created  by  these  executions  was  still  at 
high  tide,  when,  the  following  day,  May  4,  the  announcement 
was  made  that  Joseph  Plunkett,  Edward  Daly,  Michael  O'Han- 
rahan,  and  William  Pearse  had  been  found  guilty,  sentenced  to 
death,  and  shot  that  morning. 

Just  before  his  death  Michael  O'Hanrahan,  who  was  the  Treas- 
urer of  the  Volunteer  Arms  Fund,  speaking  to  his  sister  said: 
"I  am  ready  to  give  my  life  for  God  and  my  country.  In  a 
few  hours  I  shall  be  with  my  God,  where  I  will  plead  the  cause 
of  my  beloved  Ireland  and  will  ask  God  to  bless  mother  and 
you."  The  last  words  he  spoke  to  his  sisters  were :  "  Remember, 
girls,  this  is  God's  will,  and  it  is  for  Ireland/' 

When  his  mother  went  to  see  William  Pearse  shortly  be- 
fore he  was  executed,  hoping  to  hear  that  he  had  been  reprieved 
she  asked  him:  "Well,  Willie,  what  did  they  say  to  you?"  He 
replied:  "They  asked  me  if  I  was  guilty,  and  I  said  'yes,'  and 
that  was  all." 

The  following  day,  Friday,  May  5,  Major  John  McBride  was 
shot.  The  manner  of  his  death  could  not  be  better  told  than  in 
the  words  of  Father  Augustine,  the  priest  who  attended  him  dur- 
ing his  last  moments  on  earth.  In  relating  to  me  the  incidents 
of  the  execution  of  Major  McBride,  Father  Augustine  said: 

I  had  a  peculiar  feeling  that  morning.  I  cannot  just  describe  it. 
It  was  a  misty,  drizzling  morning,  I  think  the  only  misty  morning  of 
all  those  frought  with  so  much  sorrow  to  Ireland.  It  was  the  first 
time  I  had  met  Major  McBride  face  to  face  since  the  Sunday  in 
Jacob's  factory.  He  said  something  in  reference  to  a  conversation 
we  had  at  that  time  and  then  he  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and 
gave  me  some  money  for  the  poor. 

I  heard  his  confession  and  gave  him  Holy  Communion  and  recited 
some  prayers.  Then  he  told  me  that  he  had  asked  the  warder  the 
night  before  if  he  could  have  some  water  to  wash  in  in  the  morning. 
The  warder,  he  said,  had  promised  that  he  should  have  it.  I  rang  the 
bell  and  when  the  warder  came  I  reminded  him  of  his  promise,  and 
told  him  that  Major  McBride  wanted  some  water  to  wash  in.  In  a 
little  while  the  warder  returned  with  a  small  cup  of  water!  McBride 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  419 


smiled  rather  wanly  as  he  looked  at  the  cup  of  water  and  then  said  : 
"I  suppose  they  think  I  can  wash  myself  in  that." 
Then  we  went  out.    We  went  down  the  steps  and  remained  for 
some  time  at  the  exact  point  where  the  hall  leads  out  into  the  cor- 
ridor.  This  is  the  hall  where  they  blindfolded  the  men. 
"It  is  a  fine  morning,  Father,"  said  Major  McBride. 
"Yes,"  I  replied,  as  calmly  as  I  could,  "but  it  is  rather  chilly.,, 
"Yes,"  he  said,  and  asked  one  of  the  soldiers  with  us  if  he  might 
have  his  coat.   They  brought  it  to  him  and  he  threw  it  over  his  shoul- 
ders.   Then  the  soldier  began  to  blindfold  him.    He  asked  that  they 
would  not  do  this,  and,  turning  to  me,  he  said,  in  a  quiet,  matter-of- 
fact  tone  and  without  ever  a  trace  of  bravado: 

"You  know,  Father  Augustine,  I  have  often  looked  down  their 
guns  before." 

The  soldier  told  him  that  he  would  have  to  be  blindfolded. 
"I'm  sorry,  sir,"  he  said,  "but  it  is  orders." 

The  soldier  then  began  to  tie  his  hands  behind  him  and  again 
McBride  asked  that  it  be  not  done,  but  again  the  soldier  said  that  he 
had  his  orders.  McBride  assured  him  that  he  would  stand  perfectly 
quiet  and  steady,  but  the  soldier  insisted  and  bound  his  hands  be- 
hind him.   Then  I  said  to  him: 

"Offer  up  this  sacrifice  for  any  failings  or  faults  of  the  past." 

He  looked  at  me,  just  for  a  moment,  and  then  said : 

"Yes,  Father,  I  will,  I  am  very  glad  you  told  me  that." 

He  was  then  led  out  into  the  yard  and  I  went  along  with  him.  They 
made  him  stand  up  close  to  the  wall  and  the  firing  squad  lined  up,  armed 
with  rifles,  twelve  of  them,  only  a  few  short  feet  away.  I  was  standing 
close  beside  him,  and  just  at  that  moment  I  felt  that  I  did  not  care  a 
whole  lot  whether  I  was  shot  with  him  or  not.  This  was  not  any  heroism 
on  my  part — it  is  interesting  from  a  physicological  point  of  view  — 
it  may  have  been  the  morning  and  the  surroundings  —  I  am  not  sure 
just  what  it  was  —  but  the  feeling  came  over  me  at  that  time. 

Then  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  squad  came  to  me  and  pulled  me  by 
the  sleeve.  He  led  me  a  few  feet  away,  I  think  about  seven  feet.  I 
closed  ray  eyes  for  an  instant.  Then  I  opened  them  again  and  looked 
at  that  brave  man.  He  was  standing  there  and  it  seemed  as  though 
he  were  expanding  his  chest  for  the  bullets.  Then  came  the  crash  of  the 
rifles.  I  saw  him  still  standing  there,  erect  and  strong.  Then  the  poor 
knees  began  to  give  way  under  him  and  he  wavered  and  fell  backwards. 

I  ran  to  him.   It  was  but  a  pace  or  two,  but  I  seemed  to  want  to 


420   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


run  to  him.  I  bent  over  him  and  saw  that  the  shirt  over  his  chest  and 
the  white  paper  they  had  pinned  over  his  heart  were  untouched. 
There  was  not  a  mark  on  them.  Then  I  noticed  a  few  little  specks  of 
blood  on  his  forehead.  Then  the  officer  turned  him  over  and  I  saw  — 
it  was  terrible — that  the  whole  of  the  back  of  his  head  had  been  blown 
away.   I  could  not  understand  this  then,  but  later  I  knew. 

In  the  firing  squad  were  ten  men  with  blank  cartridges  in  their  rifles. 
Two  others  had  explosive  shells  in  theirs.  These  two  had  fired 
at  almost  point-blank  range  and  had  shot  Major  McBride  through  his 
eyes.   That  was  why  his  head  was  in  such  a  shocking  condition. 

Comment  on  a  narrative  of  this  kind,  simply  told  by  the  brave 
Franciscan  priest  whose  blessed  hands,  the  hands  of  the  Priest 
Sanctified,  were  the  last  on  earth  to  grasp  the  manacled  hands  of 
the  heroic  leaders  of  the  insurrection,  seems  almost  a  sacrilege. 
But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  while  the  action  of  the 
British  military  in  shooting  helpless  and  manacled  men  through 
the  eyes  with  explosive  bullets  could  in  no  way  add  to  the  suf- 
ferings of  those  upon  whom  they  vented  their  lust  for  blood, 
the  sheer  brutal  savagery  of  the  act  has  seldom  been  equaled 
even  in  the  annals  of  the  British  Government. 

Continuing,  Father  Augustine  said : 

Not  even  when  the  man  was  dead  did  the  British  leave  him  alone. 
It  was  but  a  short  time  afterwards  that  stories  were  circulated  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  refused  to  sec  the  priest  before  his  execution.  I  do 
not  know  who  it  was  who  started  the  story,  but  I  do  know  that  there 
was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it.   He  made  his  confession  to  me. 

Major  McBride's  last  request  to  Father  Augustine  was  that 
his  rosary  beads  be  given  to  his  mother. 

It  was  thought  that  the  orgy  of  murder  had  now  ceased,  but 
the  horror  which  the  executions  had  aroused  throughout  the 
world  was  intensified  when  it  became  known,  on  Monday,  May 
8,  that  four  more  of  the  Republican  leaders  had  been  done  to 
death  by  the  military.  The  following  is  the  official  communi- 
cation : 

The  following  are  further  results  of  trials  by  Field  Courts-martial: 
Sentenced  to  death,  and  sentence  carried  out  this  morning: 
Cornelius  Colbert,  Edmund  Kent, 

Michael  Mallen,  J.  J.  Heuston. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  421 


\  In  every  record  of  the  future  which  deals  with  the  deeds 
of  brave  and  gallant  men  the  name  of  Michael  Mallen  will 
stand  high  amongst  the  highest.  "The  story  of  his  death," 
writes  the  editor  of  The  Catholic  Bulletin,  is  as  fascinating 
as  a  romance  and  as  grand  as  an  epic.  He  is  said  to  have 
prayed  into  the  very  rifles  of  the  men  who  shot  him,  and 
his  last  words  were:  'Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit.,,,  Shortly 
before  his  execution,  the  patriot  wrote  to  his  wife  as  follows: 
But,  oh,  if  only  you  and  the  little  ones  were  coming  too,  we  could 
all  reach  Heaven  together.  ...  If  you  can,  I  would  like  you  to 
dedicate  Una  to  the  service  of  God,  and  also  Joseph.  .  .  .  Do  this 
if  you  can,  and  pray  to  Our  Divine  Lord  that  it  may  be  so. 

See  Alderman  Tom  Kelly.  He  is  a  good,  God-fearing  man,  and 
will  be  able  to  help  you,  for  my  sake  as  well  as  for  yours.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Partridge,  too,  was  more  than  a  brother  to  me.  He  held  me  close 
in  his  arms,  so  that  I  might  have  comfort  and  warmth. 

God  and  His  Blessed  Mother  again  and  again  bless  and  protect 
you.  O  Saviour  of  men,  if  my  dear  ones  could  enter  Heaven  with 
me,  how  blessed  and  happy  I  would  be;  they  would  be  away  from 
the  cares  and  trials  of  the  world. 

Una,  my  little  one,  be  a  nun.  Joseph,  my  little  man,  be  a  priest 
if  you  can.  James  and  John,  to  you  the  care  of  your  mother.  Make 
yourselves  good,  strong  men  for  her  sake,  and  remember  Ireland. 

Good-bye,  my  wife,  my  darling.  Remember  me.  God  again  bless 
and  protect  you  and  our  children.  I  must  now  prepare.  These  last 
few  hours  must  be  spent  with  God  alone. 

Thus  another  of  God's  good  men  was  butchered  to  satisfy 
the  thirst  of  the  British  for  the  blood  of  the  men  who  had 
dared  to  stand  up  for  the  rights  of  a  small  nation,^  " 

In  his  last  message,  written  shortly  before  his  death,  J.  J. 
Heuston  wrote:  "Whatever  I  have  done,  I  have  done  as  a 
soldier  of  Ireland  in  what  I  believe  to  be  my  country's  best 
interests,  and  I  have,  thank  God,  no  vain  regrets.  After  all, 
it  is  better  to  be  a  corpse  than  a  coward." 

Cornelius  Colbert,  also,  shortly  before  he  died,  wrote  his 
last  message  on  a  scrap  of  paper,  as  follows:  "An  la  fuaricaa 
bas  ar  son  Eireann  agus  ar  son  De  bhiomar  bailigthe." 
("When  I  died  for  Ireland  and  for  God,  we  had  mobilized  ". 


422    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


In  connection  with  the  death  of  Colbert,  the  British  spread 
abroad  a  story  to  the  effect  that  he  had  gone  to  his  death 
joking  with  one  of  the  soldiers  who  had  to  prepare  him  for 
execution.  The  priest  who  attended  him  up  to  the  last 
moment  wrote  the  following  letter  to  The  Evening  Herald 
of  Dublin,  on  June  1,  in  which  he  tells  how  Colbert  died: 

Dear  Sir  —  In  last  evening's  issue  of  your  paper,  towards  the  end 
of  the  second  news  column  of  the  front  page,  under  the  heading 
"Last  Moments  of  Volunteer  Leader,"  it  is  stated  that  Mr.  Cornelius 
Colbert  "died  joking  the  men  who  were  preparing  him  for  death." 
It  is  also  asserted  that,  when  one  of  the  soldiers  was  fixing  the  white 
cloth  on  his  breast,  to  indicate  his  heart,  he  told  them  "his  heart 
was  far  away  at  the  moment." 

This  version  is  quite  inaccurate  and  fanciful,  and  I  owe  it  to  his 
memory  to  give  the  true  one. 

There  was  no  joking,  not  even  the  semblance  of  it.  Poor  Colbert 
was  far  too  beautiful  and  too  reverent  a  character  to  joke  with  any- 
one in  such  a  solemn  hour.  I  know  very  well  where  his  heart  was 
then.  It  was  very  near  to  God  and  to  the  friends  he  loved.  What 
really  happened  was  this.  While  my  left  arm  linked  the  prisoner's 
right,  and  while  I  was  whispering  something  in  his  ear,  a  soldier  ap- 
proached to  fit  a  bit  of  paper  on  his  breast.  While  this  was  being 
done  he  looked  down,  and  addressing  the  soldier  in  a  perfectly  cool 
and  natural  way  said:  "Wouldn't  it  be  better  to  pin  it  up  higher 
—  nearer  the  heart?"  The  soldier  said  something  in  reply,  and  then 
added:  "Give  me  your  hand  now."  The  prisoner  seemed  confused 
and  extended  his  left  hand.  "Not  that,"  said  the  soldier,  "but  the 
right."  The  right  was  accordingly  extended,  and,  having  shaken  it 
warmly,  the  kindly  human-hearted  soldier  proceeded  to  gently  bind 
the  prisoner's  hands  behind  his  back,  and  afterwards  blindfolded  him. 

Some  minutes  later,  my  arm  still  linked  in  his,  and  accompanied 
by  another  priest,  we  entered  the  dark  corridor  leading  to  the  yard 
and,  his  lips  moving  in  prayer,  the  brave  lad  went  forth  to  die. 

F.  A. 

On  Tuesday,  May  9,  it  was  announced  that  Thomas  Kent, 
of  Coole,  near  Fermoy,  had  been  sentenced  to  death  and  that 
the  sentence  had  been  carried  out  that  morning.  This  boy 
was  thus  done  to  death  for  the  shooting  of  a  policeman  who 
had  attacked  him  and  whose  death  was  due  to  an  accident. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  423 


The  end  of  the  ghastly  list  came  to  public  notice  on  May 
12,  when  the  following  communique  was  issued: 

The  trial  of  two  prominent  leaders  in  the  rebellion,  whose  names 
appeared  in  the  proclamation  issued  by  the  so-called  "Provisional 
Government,"  namely: 

James  Connolly,  and 
John  MacDermott, 

took  place  on  the  9th  of  May. 

Sentence  of  death  was  awarded  in  each  case.  These  sentences 
were  confirmed  by  the  General  Officer  Commander-in-Chief  on  the 
9th  May,  and  they  were  carried  out  this  morning  (May  12th). 

Of  all  the  men  who  led  in  the  Rebellion  it  is  probable  that 
Sean  MacDermott  was  the  most  beloved.  He  loved  Ireland, 
and  he  brought  others  to  love  her  in  like  manner.  A  gentle, 
pure-souled  patriot,  his  brutal  murder  was  alike  a  loss  to 
his  country  and  to  humanity.  So  ill  that  he  had  to  be 
placed  in  a  chair  before  being  shot,  he  went  to  death  with 
peace  and  happiness  in  his  heart.  The  following  are  two 
letters  he  wrote  just  before  his  execution.  The  first  is  to  his 
brothers  and  sisters: 

KlLMAINHAM  PRISON,  DUBLIN, 

May  11,  1916. 

My  Dear  Brothers  and  Sisters, 

I  sincerely  hope  that  this  letter  will  not  come  as  a  surprise  to  any 
of  you,  and,  above  all,  that  none  of  you  will  worry  over  what  I  have 
to  say. 

It  is  just  a  wee  note  to  say  that  I  have  been  tried  by  court-martial 
and  sentenced  to  be  shot  —  to  die  the  death  of  a  soldier.  By  the 
time  this  reaches  you  I  will,  with  God's  mercy,  have  joined  in  Heaven 
my  poor  father  and  mother,  as  well  as  my  dear  friends  who  have 
been  shot  during  the  week.  They  died  like  heroes,  and  with  God's 
help  I  will  act  throughout  as  heroic  as  they  did.  I  only  wish  you 
could  see  me  now. 

I  am  just  as  calm  and  collected  as  if  I  were  talking  to  you  all  or 
taking  a  walk  to  see  Mick  Wynne  or  some  of  the  old  friends  and 
neighbors  around  home.  I  have  priests  with  me  almost  constantly 
for  the  past  twenty-four  hours.    One  dear  old  friend  of  mine,  Rev. 


424    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Dr.  Brown,  Maynooth,  stayed  with  me  up  to  a  very  late  hour  last 
night.  I  feel  a  happiness  the  like  of  which  I  never  experienced  in 
my  life  before,  and  a  feeling  that  I  could  not  describe.  Surely,  when 
you  know  my  state  of  mind,  none  of  you  will  worry  or  lament  my 
fate.    No,  you  ought  to  envy  me. 

The  cause  for  which  I  die  has  been  rebaptized  during  the  past 
week  by  the  blood  of  as  good  men  as  ever  trod  God's  earth,  and 
should  I  not  feel  justly  proud  to  be  numbered  amongst  them?  Be- 
fore God  let  me  again  assure  you  of  how  proud  and  happy  I  feel. 
It  is  not  alone  for  myself  so  much  I  feel  happy,  but  for  the  fact  that 
Ireland  has  produced  such  men. 

Enough  of  the  personal  note.  I  had  hoped,  Pat,  to  be  able  to 
help  you  in  placing  the  children  in  positions  to  earn  their  livelihood, 
but  God  will  help  you  to  provide  for  them.  Tell  them  how  I  struck 
out  for  myself  and  counsel  them  to  always  practice  truth,  honesty, 
and  straightforwardness  in  all  things  and  sobriety.  If  they  do  this 
and  remember  their  country,  they  will  be  all  right.  Insist  on  their 
learning  the  language  and  history. 

I  have  a  lot  of  books  and  I  am  making  arrangements  with  one  of 
the  priests  to  have  them  turned  in  to  a  library,  but  I  can  arrange 
that  you  get  some  of  them  for  the  children.  You  might  like  to  get 
these  clothes  that  I  am  wearing  to  have  them  in  memory  of  me,  so 
I  will  arrange,  if  possible,  to  have  them  sent  to  my  old  lodgings, 
and  you  ought  to  come  there  and  take  them  and  any  other  little 
things  belonging  to  me  that  you'd  like  to  have  —  of  course  for  Dan 
and  Maggie  also.  There  are  a  few  copies  of  a  recent  photo  which 
you  can  take,  and  you  might  order  more  copies  for  friends,  who  may 
like  to  have  one. 

Of  course  you  got  the  letter  I  sent  you  a  few  days  before  Easter. 
By  the  way,  when  you  are  in  Dublin  find  if  I  owe  any  money  to  my 
landlady,  and  if  so  pay  her.  I  don't  think  I  do,  but  at  the  moment 
I'm  not  certain. 

9  One  word  more  about  the  children.  Put  some  of  them  to  learn 
trades  if  they  can  at  all.  You  will  see  if  they  show  any  promise  of 
mechanical  or  technical  skill.  They  were  too  small  when  I  saw  them 
to  advise.  Tell  Maggie  she  ought  to  try  to  get  Mary  Ann  to  go  for 
teaching.  I  don't  know  what  CatyBee  ought  to  do.  As  for  Dan,  I 
suppose  he  will  decide  for  himself,  God  direct  him.  He  need  not 
regret  having  stayed  at  home  so  long. 

Make  a  copy  of  this  and  send  it  to  the  others  as  soon  as  you  can. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  425 


A  lot  of  my  friends  will  want  to  hear  about  me  from  James,  Rose 
and  Kate.  They  can  tell  them  all  that  in  my  last  hours  I  am  the 
same  Sean  they  always  knew,  and  that  even  now  I  can  enjoy  a 
laugh  and  a  joke  as  good  as  ever. 

I  don't  know  if  you  will  require  a  pass  to  get  to  Dublin,  but  you'd 
better  find  out  before  you  start.  Perhaps  martial  law  will  have  been 
withdrawn  before  you  can  come.  It  was  passed  for  one  month  only, 
and  I  don't  think  it  will  be  renewed.  If  I  think  of  any  other  things 
to  say  I  will  tell  them  to  Miss  Ryan,  she  who  in  all  probability,  had 
I  lived,  would  have  been  my  wife. 

I  will  send  instructions  to  my  landlady,  but  she  knows  you,  all  right. 

Good-bye,  dear  brothers  and  sisters.    Make  no  lament  for  me. 

Pray  for  my  soul  and  feel  a  lasting  pride  at  my  death.    I  die  that 

the  Irish  Nation  may  live.    God  bless  and  guard  you  all  and  may 

He  have  mercy  on  mv  soul.  _r 

Yours  as  ever, 

Sean. 

P.  S.  —  I  find  I  have  not  mentioned  Patrick  or  his  mother,  but 
they  know  they  are  included  for  old,  very  old,  times'  sake.  Yes, 
long  before  there  was  a  thought  of  Maggie  marrying  Patrick;  also 
Bessie,  Mary,  and  Will.  I'd  love  to  clasp  the  hand  of  each  of  you 
and  many  other  dear  friends,  but  I  will  meet  you  all  soon  in  a  better 
place.  Remember  me  to  all  friends  and  give  some  money  to  Fathers 
Foy  and  McLaughlin  for  Mass  for  me.  Good  bye 

Sean. 

Following  this  is  the  letter  he  wrote  to  a  friend: 

KlLMAINHAM  PRISON, 

Dublin,  11th  May,  1916. 

My  Dear  John : 

Just  a  wee  note  to  bid  you  good-bye.  I  expect  in  a  few  hours  to 
join  Tom,  in  a  better  world.  I  have  been  sentenced  to  a  soldier  s 
death,  to  be  shot  to-morrow  morning.  I  have  nothing  to  say  about 
this,  only  that  I  look  on  it  as  a  part  of  the  day's  work  —  to  die  that 
the  Irish  Nation  may  live.  Our  blood  will  rebaptize  and  reinvigo- 
rate  the  "Old  Land."  Knowing  this,  it  is  superfluous  to  say  how 
happy  I  feel.  I  know  now  what  I  always  felt,  that  the  Irish  Nation 
can  never  die.  Let  present-day  place-hunters  condemn  our  action  as 
they  will,  posterity  will  judge  us  all  right  from  the  effects  of  our  action. 


426   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


I  know  I  will  meet  you  soon.  Until  then  good-bye.  God  guard 
and  protect  you  all  in  No.  15.  You  have  had  a  sore  trial,  but  I 
know  that  you  and  Mrs.  Daly  and  all  the  girls  feel  proud  in  spite  of 
a  little  temporary  and  natural  grief  that  her  son,  and  the  girls,  their 
brother,  as  well  as  Tom,  are  included  in  the  list  of  honors. 

Kindly  remember  me  especially  to  Mrs.  Clarke,  and  tell  her  I  am 
the  same  Sean  she  always  knew.    God  bless  you  all. 
As  ever, 

Sincerely  yours, 

Sean  MacDiarmada. 

To  Mr.  John  Daly,  15  Barrington  Street,  Limerick. 

No  words  can  better  depict  the  manner  of  the  death  of 
James  Connolly  than  those  of  his  brave  and  devoted  daughter, 
Nora,  who  herself,  as  a  member  of  the  Cumann  na  mBan 
played  an  heroic  part  in  the  Rebellion.  After  encounter- 
ing innumerable  difficulties,  she  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
Ireland  and  reaching  New  York.  She  describes  her  father's 
last  hours  as  follows: 

They  took  him  on  a  stretcher  from  Dublin  Castle  early  Friday 
morning,  May  12,  because  he  couldn't  walk  on  account  of  his  wounds, 
and  carried  him  to  Kilmainham  Jail,  four  miles  away. 

They  propped  him  in  a  chair  because  he  couldn't  stand,  and  then 
shot  him  dead.  Then  they  took  his  body  to  the  Arbor  Hill  Barracks, 
threw  it  into  a  common  trench  with  the  other  dead  patriots,  and 
covered  his  body  with  quicklime. 

They  refused  to  give  up  the  body.  They  would  not  even  permit 
us  to  provide  a  coffin. 

That  was  my  father's  end. 

The  following  is  the  statement  made  by  Connolly  at  the 
court-martial : 

I  do  not  wish  to  make  any  defense  except  against  charges  of 
wanton  cruelty  to  prisoners.  These  trifling  allegations  that  have 
been  made,  if  they  record  facts  that  really  happened,  deal  only  with 
the  almost  unavoidable  incidents  of  a  hurried  uprising  against  long- 
established  authority,  and  nowhere  show  evidence  of  set  purpose 
wantonly  to  injure  unarmed  persons. 

We  went  out  to  break  the  connection  between  this  country  and 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  427 


the  British  Empire  and  to  establish  an  Irish  Republic.  We  believe 
that  the  call  we  then  issued  to  the  people  of  Ireland  was  a  nobler 
call  in  a  holier  cause  than  any  call  issued  to  them  during  this  war 
having  any  connection  with  the  war. 

We  succeeded  in  proving  that  Irishmen  are  ready  to  die  endeavor- 
ing to  win  for  Ireland  those  national  rights  which  the  British  Govern- 
ment has  been  asking  them  to  die  to  win  for  Belgium.  As  long  as 
that  remains  the  case  the  cause  of  Irish  freedom  is  safe. 

Believing  that  the  British  Government  has  no  right  in  Ireland, 
never  had  any  right  in  Ireland,  and  never  can  have  any  right  in 
Ireland,  the  presence  in  any  one  generation  of  Irishmen  of  even  a 
respectable  minority,  ready  to  die  to  affirm  that  truth,  makes  that 
Government  forever  an  usurpation  and  a  crime  against  human 
progress. 

I  personally  thank  God  that  I  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when 
thousands  of  Irish  men  and  boys,  and  hundreds  of  Irish  women  and 
girls,  were  ready  to  affirm  that  truth  and  to  attest  it  with  their  lives 
if  need  be. 

(Signed)  James  Connolly. 
Commandant  General  Dublin  Division,  Army  of 
the  Irish  Republic. 

Shortly  after  the  news  was  received  of  the  shooting  of 
President  Pearse,  MacDonagh,  and  Clarke,  a  statement,  made 
on  first-hand  authority,  appeared  in  the  Irish  press  of  Amer- 
ica to  the  effect  that  the  Redmondites,  in  the  British  House 
of  Commons,  cheered  the  announcement  of  the  execution  of 
these  men.  At  the  present  time  it  is  impossible  to  obtain 
absolute  verification  of  this  statement.  Therefore  it  is  given 
here  just  as  it  appeared  originally  in  The  Gaelic  American: 

We  have  been  informed  by  a  most  reliable  authority  that,  when 
Asquith  announced  the  murder  by  court-martial,  of  Padraic  H.  Pearse, 
Thomas  J.  Clarke,  and  Thomas  MacDonagh,  the  first  three  rebel 
leaders  to  be  shot,  all  the  members  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party 
who  were  present  in  the  House  of  Commons  stood  up  and  cheered. 
Our  informant  was  told  this  by  a  Member  of  Parliament  who  was 
present  at  the  time  and  who  is  a  truthful  man.  All  the  Irish 
papers,  "Nationalist"  and  Tory  alike,  suppressed  the  news,  but  all 
Ireland  knows  it  just  the  same. 


i 


CHAPTER  LXIII 


How  Casement  Died 

THE  thirst  for  blood  of  the  British  was  not  appeased 
by  the  lives  that  had  already  been  taken.  In  the 
face  of  the  opinion  of  the  world,  they  had  determined 
to  take  vengeance  on  Roger  Casement,  even  though  they 
knew  that  he  had  striven  to  prevent  the  Rebellion  and  had, 
in  fact,  been  the  immediate  cause  of  MacNeilPs  counter- 
manding order  to  the  Volunteers. 

After  lying  for  weeks  in  a  London  jail,  Casement  was 
brought  to  trial  at  the  Royal  Courts  of  Justice,  London,  on 
June  26.  His  prosecutor  was  the  Attorney-General,  Sir  F.  E. 
Smith,  one  of  the  men  who  had  been  most  prominently  iden- 
tified with  the  organization  of  the  Carson  Volunteers.  Evi- 
dence was  given  of  Casement's  arrest  in  Ireland  after  his 
landing  from  the  German  submarine,  and  of  the  propaganda 
he  had  carried  on  amongst  the  Irish  prisoners  of  war  in 
Germany  with  the  intention  of  forming  them  into  an  Irish 
brigade  to  join  the  Irish  Volunteers.  Most  of  this  evidence 
was  given  by  a  man  named  Daniel  Julian  Bailey,  formerly  a 
soldier  in  the  English  army,  who  had  joined  Casement's 
Irish  Brigade.  This  man  went  to  Ireland  with  Casement  in 
the  submarine,  and,  on  his  arrest,  turned  King's  evidence 
against  Casement. 

Casement  was  tried  under  a  statute  of  Edward  III.  It 
was  obvious  from  the  first  that  the  result  of  the  trial  was  a 
foregone  conclusion,  but  his  counsel,  including  Mr.  Francis 
Doyle  of  America,  made  a  determined  fight  for  the  prisoner. 
The  main  plea  in  favor  of  the  prisoner  was  that  he  was  being 
illegally  tried  under  the  statute,  as  his  offense,  if  any,  was 
not  committed  within  the  realm  of  England,  as  charged  in 
the  bill  of  accusation. 


THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  429 


When  the  jury  had  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty,  Casement 
was  asked  if  he  had  anything  to  say  as  to  why  sentence  of 
death  should  not  be  passed  upon  him.  His  speech  from  the 
dock  will  forever  rank  with  Emmet's  as  a  most  eloquent 
statement  of  Ireland's  case  as  against  England.  Various  in- 
complete and  inaccurate  versions  have  been  published.  The 
following  is  the  full  speech,  as  it  was  delivered  by  Roger 
Casement,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  trial,  on  Thursday, 
June  29: 

My  Lord  Chief  Justice,  as  I  wish  my  words  to  reach  a  much  wider 
audience  than  I  see  before  me  here,  I  intend  to  read  all  that  I  pro- 
pose to  say.  What  I  shall  read  now,  is  something  I  wrote  more  than 
twenty  days  ago. 

There  is  an  objection,  possibly  not  good  in  law,  but  surely  good 
on  moral  grounds,  against  the  application  to  me  here  of  this  old 
English  statute,  565  years  old,  that  seeks  to  deprive  an  Irishman 
to-day  of  life  and  honor,  not  for  "adhering  to  the  King's  enemies," 
but  for  adhering  to  his  own  people. 

When  this  statute  was  passed  in  1351,  what  was  the  state  of  men's 
minds  on  the  question  of  a  far  higher  allegiance  —  that  of  man  to 
God  and  His  Kingdom?  The  law  of  that  day  did  not  permit  a 
man  to  forsake  his  Church  or  deny  his  God  save  with  his  life.  The 
"heretic"  then  had  the  same  doom  as  the  "traitor."  To-day  a 
man  may  forswear  God  and  His  heavenly  realm  without  fear  or 
penalty,  all  earlier  statutes  having  gone  the  way  of  Nero's  edicts 
against  the  Christians;  but  that  Constitutional  phantom,  "The 
King,"  can  still  dig  up  from  the  dungeons  and  torture  chambers  of 
the  Dark  Ages  a  law  that  takes  a  man's  life  and  limb  for  an  exercise 
of  conscience. 

If  true  religion  rests  on  love,  it  is  equally  true  that  loyalty  rests 
on  love.  The  law  I  am  charged  under  has  no  parentage  in  love,  and 
claims  the  allegiance  of  to-day  on  the  ignorance  and  blindness  of 
the  past.  I  am  being  tried  in  truth  not  by  my  peers  of  the  live 
present,  but  by  the  fears  of  the  dead  past;  not  by  the  civilization 
of  the  twentieth  century,  but  by  the  brutality  of  the  fourteenth; 
not  even  by  a  statute  framed  in  the  language  of  the  land  that 
tries  me,  but  emitted  in  the  language  of  an  enemy  land  —  so  anti- 
quated is  the  law  that  must  be  sought  to-day  to  slay  an  Irishman 
whose  offense  is  that  he  puts  Ireland  first! 


430   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Loyalty  is  a  sentiment,  not  a  law.  It  rests  on  love,  not  on  re- 
straint. The  government  of  Ireland  by  England  rests  on  restraint 
and  not  on  law;  and  since  it  demands  no  love,  it  can  evoke  no 
loyalty. 

But  this  statute  is  more  absurd  than  it  is  antiquated;  and  if 
it  be  potent  to  hang  one  Irishman,  it  is  still  more  potent  to  gibbet 
all  Englishmen.  Edward  III  was  king  not  only  of  the  Realm  of 
England,  but  also  of  the  Realm  of  France,  and  he  was  not  king 
of  Ireland.  Yet  his  dead  hand  to-day  may  pull  the  noose  around 
the  Irishman's  neck,  whose  Sovereign  he  was  not,  but  it  can  strain 
no  strand  around  the  Frenchman's  throat,  whose  sovereign  he  was. 
For  centuries  the  successors  of  Edward  III  claimed  to  be  kings  of 
France,  and  quartered  the  arms  of  France  upon  their  royal  shield 
down  to  the  Union  with  Ireland  on  January  1,  1801.  Throughout 
these  hundreds  of  years  these  "Kings  of  France"  were  constantly 
at  war  with  their  realm  of  France  and  their  French  subjects,  who 
should  have  gone  from  birth  to  death  with  an  obvious  fear  of  trea- 
son before  their  eyes.  But  did  they?  Did  the  "Kings  *of  France," 
resident  here  at  Windsor,  or  in  the  Tower  of  London,  hang,  draw,  and 
quarter  as  a  traitor  every  Frenchman  for  400  years  who  fell  into 
their  power  with  arms  in  their  hands?  On  the  contrary,  they  re- 
ceived Embassies  of  these  traitors,  presents  from  these  traitors,  even 
knighthood  itself  at  the  hands  of  these  traitors,  feasted  with  them, 
tilted  with  them,  fought  with  them  —  but  did  not  assassinate  them 
by  law. 

Judicial  assassination  to-day  is  reserved  only  for  one  race  of  the 
King's  subjects  —  for  Irishmen,  for  those  who  cannot  forget  their 
allegiance  to  the  Realm  of  Ireland.  The  Kings  of  England,  as  such, 
had  no  rights  in  Ireland  up  to  the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  save  such 
as  rested  on  compact  and  mutual  obligation  entered  into  between 
them  and  certain  princes,  chiefs,  and  lords  of  Ireland.  This  form  of 
legal  right,  such  as  it  was,  gave  no  King  of  England  lawful  power 
to  impeach  an  Irishman  for  high  treason  under  this  statute  of  King 
Edward  III  of  England  until  an  Irish  Act,  known  as  Poyning's  Law, 
the  tenth  of  Henry  VII,  was  passed  in  1494,  at  Drogheda,  by  the 
Parliament  of  the  Pale  in  Ireland  and  enacted  as  law  in  that  part 
of  Ireland.  But,  if  by  Poyning's  Law  an  Irishman  of  the  Pale  could 
be  indicted  for  high  treason  under  this  Act,  he  could  be  indicted 
only  in  one  way  and  before  one  tribunal  —  by  the  laws  of  the  Realm 
of  Ireland  and  in  Ireland.    The  very  law  of  Poyning,  which,  I  be- 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916 


431 


lieve,  applies  this  statute  of  Edward  III  to  Ireland,  enacted  also  for 
the  Irishman's  defense  "all  those  laws  by  which  England  claims  her 
liberty." 

And  what  is  the  fimdamental  charter  of  an  Englishman's  liberty? 
That  he  shall  be  tried  by  his  peers.  With  all  respect,  I  assert  this 
Court  is  to  me,  an  Irishman,  charged  with  this  offense,  a  foreign 
Court  —  this  jury  is  for  me,  an  Irishman,  not  a  jury  of  my  peers  to 
try  me  in  this  vital  issue,  for  it  is  patent  to  every  man  of  conscience 
that  I  have  a  right,  an  indefeasible  right,  if  tried  at  all  under  this 
statute  of  high  treason,  to  be  tried  in  Ireland,  before  an  Irish  Court 
and  by  an  Irish  jury.  This  Court,  this  jury,  the  public  opinion  of 
this  country,  England,  cannot  but  be  prejudiced  in  varying  degrees 
against  me,  most  of  all  in  time  of  war.  I  did  not  land  in  England. 
I  landed  in  Ireland.  It  was  to  Ireland  I  came;  to  Ireland  I  wanted 
to  come,  and  the  last  place  I  desired  to  land  was  in  England. 

But  for  the  Attorney-General  of  England  there  is  only  "England" 
—  there  is  no  Ireland,  there  is  only  the  law  of  England  —  no  right 
of  Ireland;  the  liberty  of  Ireland  and  of  Irishmen  is  to  be  judged  by 
the  power  of  England.  Yet  for  me.  the  Irish  outlaw,  there  is  a  land 
of  Ireland,  a  right  of  Ireland,  and  a  charter  for  all  Irishmen  to  appeal 
to,  in  the  last  resort,  a  charter  that  even  the  very  statutes  of  Eng- 
land itself  cannot  deprive  us  of,  nay  more,  a  charter  that  English- 
men themselves  assert  as  the  fundamental  bond  of  law  that  connects 
the  two  kingdoms.  This  charge  of  high  treason  involves  a  moral 
responsibility,  as  the  very  terms  of  the  indictment  against  myself 
recite,  inasmuch  as  I  committed  the  acts  I  am  charged  with  to  the 
"evil  example  of  others  in  the  like  case."  AVhat  was  the  evil  ex- 
ample I  set  to  others  in  the  like  case,  and  who  were  these  others? 
The  evil  example  charge  is  that  I  asserted  the  rights  of  my  own 
country,  and  the  "others"  I  appealed  to,  to  aid  my  endeavor,  were 
my  own  countrymen.  The  example  was  given  not  to  Englishmen, 
but  to  Irishmen,  and  the  "like  case"  can  never  arise  in  England,  but 
only  in  Ireland.  To  Englishmen  I  set  no  evil  example,  for  I  made 
no  appeal  to  them.  I  asked  no  Englishmen  to  help  me.  I  asked 
Irishmen  to  fight  for  their  rights.  The  "evil  example"  was  only  to 
other  Irishmen  who  might  come  after  me  and  in  "like  case"  seek 
to  do  as  I  did.  How,  then,  since  neither  my  example  nor  my  appeal 
was  addressed  to  Englishmen,  can  I  be  rightfully  tried  by  them? 

If  I  did  wrong  in  making  that  appeal  to  Irishmen  to  join  with  me 
in  an  effort  to  fight  for  Ireland,  it  is  by  Irishmen  and  by  them  alone 


432   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


I  can  be  rightfully  judged.  From  this  Court  and  its  jurisdiction  I 
appeal  to  those  I  am  alleged  to  have  wronged,  and  to  those  I  am 
alleged  to  have  injured  by  my  "evil  example,"  and  claim  that  they 
alone  are  competent  to  decide  my  guilt  or  my  innocence.  If  they 
find  me  guilty,  the  statute  may  affix  the  penalty,  but  the  statute 
does  not  override  or  annul  my  right  to  seek  judgment  at  their  hands. 
This  is  so  fundamental  a  right,  so  natural  a  right,  so  obvious  a  right, 
that  it  is  clear  the  Crown  were  aware  of  it  when  they  brought  me 
by  force  and  by  stealth  from  Ireland  to  this  country.  It  was  not 
I  who  landed  in  England,  but  the  Crown  who  dragged  me  here, 
away  from  my  own  country  to  which  I  had  returned  with  a  price 
upon  my  head,  away  from  my  own  countrymen  whose  loyalty  is  not 
in  doubt,  and  safe  from  the  judgment  of  my  peers  whose  judgment 
I  do  not  shrink  from.  I  admit  no  other  judgment  but  theirs.  I 
accept  no  verdict  save  at  their  hands. 

I  assert  from  this  dock  that  I  am  being  tried  here  not  because  it 
is  just,  but  because  it  is  unjust.  Place  me  before  a  jury  of  my 
own  countrymen,  be  it  Protestant  or  Catholic,  Unionist  or  National- 
ist, Sinn  Feineach  or  Orangeman,  and  I  shall  accept  the  verdict  and 
bow  to  the  statute  and  all  its  penalties.  But  I  shall  accept  no 
meaner  finding  against  me  than  that  of  those  whose  loyalty  I  en- 
dangered by  my  example  and  to  whom  alone  I  appeal.  If  they  ad- 
judge me  guilty,  then  guilty  I  am.  It  is  not  I  who  am  afraid  of 
their  verdict  —  it  is  the  Crown.  If  this  is  not  so,  why  fear  the  test? 
I  fear  it  not.    I  demand  it  as  my  right. 

That  is  the  condemnation  of  English  rule,  of  English-made  law, 
of  English  Government  in  Ireland,  that  it  dare  not  rest  on  the  will 
of  the  Irish  people,  but  exists  in  defiance  of  their  will  —  that  it  is  a 
rule  derived  not  from  right,  but  from  conquest. 

Conquest,  my  lord,  gives  no  title;  and,  if  it  exists  over  the  body, 
it  fails  over  the  mind.  It  can  exert  no  empire  over  men's  reason  and 
judgment  and  affections;  and  it  is  from  this  law  of  conquest  with- 
out title,  to  the  reason,  judgment,  and  affection  of  my  own  country- 
men that  I  appeal. 

I  would  add,  the  generous  expressions  of  sympathy  extended  to 
me  from  so  many  quarters,  particularly  from  America,  have  touched 
me  very  much.  In  that  country,  as  in  my  own,  I  am  sure  my 
motives  are  understood,  for  the  achievement  of  their  liberties  has 
been  an  abiding  inspiration  to  Irishmen  and  to  all  elsewhere  rightly 
struggling  to  be  free. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  433 


My  Lord  Chief  Justice,  I  am  not  called  upon,  I  conceive,  to  say 
anything  in  answer  to  the  inquiry  your  lordship  has  addressed  to 
me  why  sentence  should  not  be  passed  upon  me.  Since  I  do  not 
admit  any  verdict  in  this  Court,  I  cannot,  my  Lord,  admit  the  fit- 
ness of  the  sentence  that  of  necessity  must  follow  it  from  this  Court. 
I  hope  I  shall  be  acquitted  of  presumption  if  I  say  that  the  Court 
I  see  before  me  now  is  not  this  High  Court  of  Justice  of  England 
but  a  far  greater,  a  far  older  assembly  of  justices  —  that  of  the 
people  of  Ireland.  Since  in  the  acts  which  have  led  to  this  trial  it 
was  the  people  of  Ireland  I  sought  to  serve  and  them  alone  —  I 
leave  my  judgment  and  my  sentence  in  their  hands. 

Let  me  pass  from  myself  and  my  own  fate  to  a  far  more  pressing 
as  it  is  far  more  urgent  theme  —  not  the  fate  of  the  individual  Irish- 
man who  may  have  tried  and  failed,  but  the  claims -and  the  fate  of 
the  country  that  has  not  failed.  Ireland  has  seen  her  sons  —  aye, 
and  her  daughters,  too  —  suffer  from  generation  to  generation  always 
for  the  same  cause,  meeting  always  the  same  fate,  and  always  at 
the  hands  of  the  same  power;  and  always  a  fresh  generation  has 
passed  on  to  withstand  the  same  oppression.  For  if  English  au- 
thority be  omnipotent  —  a  power,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  phrased  it, 
that  reaches  to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth  —  Irish  hope  exceeds  the 
dimensions  of  that  power,  excels  its  authority,  and  renews  with  each 
generation  the  claims  of  the  last.  The  cause  that  begets  this  in- 
domitable persistency,  the  faculty  of  preserving  through  generations 
of  misery  the  remembrance  of  lost  liberty,  this,  surely,  is  the  noblest 
cause  ever  strove  for,  ever  lived  for,  ever  died  for.  If  this  be  the 
case  I  stand  here  to-day  indicted  for  and  convicted  of  sustaining, 
then  I  stand  in  a  goodly  company  and  a  right  noble  succession. 

My  counsel  has  referred  to  the  Ulster  Volunteer  movement,  and 
I  will  not  touch  at  length  upon  that  ground,  save  only  to  say  this, 
that  neither  I  nor  any  of  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  who 
were  formed  in  Dublin  in  November,  1913,  had  any  quarrel  with 
the  Ulster  Volunteers  as  such,  who  were  born  a  year  earlier.  Our 
movement  was  not  directed  against  them,  but  against  the  men  who 
misused  and  misdirected  the  courage,  the  sincerity,  and  the  local 
patriotism  of  the  men  of  the  north  of  Ireland.  The  manifesto  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  promulgated  at  a  public  meeting  in  Dublin  on 
November  25,  1913,  stated  with  sincerity  the  aims  of  the  organiza- 
tion as  I  have  outlined  them. 

Since  arms  were  so  necessary  to  make  our  organization  a  reality 


434    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 

and  to  give  to  the  minds  of  Irishmen  menaced  with  the  most  out- 
rageous threats  a  sense  of  security,  it  was  our  bounden  duty  to 
get  arms  before  all  else.  I  decided,  with  this  end  in  view,  to  go  to 
America,  with  surely  a  better  right  to  appeal  to  Irishmen  there  for 
help  in  an  hour  of  great  national  trial  than  those  envoys  of  "Em- 
pire" could  assert  for  their  week-end  descents  upon  Ireland,  or 
their  appeals  to  Germany. 

If,  as  the  right  honorable  gentleman,  the  present  Attorney-General, 
asserted  in  a  speech  at  Manchester,  Nationalists  would  neither  fight 
for  Home  Rule  nor  pay  for  it,  it  was  our  duty  to  show  him  that  we 
knew  how  to  do  both.  Within  a  few  weeks  of  my  arrival  in  the 
States  the  fund  that  had  been  opened  to  secure  arms  for  the  Volun- 
teers of  Ireland  amounted  to  many  thousands  of  pounds.  In  every 
case  the  money  subscribed,  whether  it  came  from  the  purse  of  the 
wealthy  man  or  the  still  readier  pocket  of  the  poor  man,  was  Irish 
gold. 

Then  came  the  war.  As  Mr.  Birrell  said  in  his  evidence  laid  be- 
fore the  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  late  rebellion 
in  Ireland,  "the  war  upset  all  our  calculations."  It  upset  mine  no 
less  than  Mr.  Birrell's,  and  put  an  end  to  my  mission  of  peaceful 
effort  in  America.  War  between  Great  Britain  and  Germany  meant, 
as  I  believed,  ruin  for  all  the  hopes  we  had  founded  on  the  enrol- 
ment of  the  Irish  Volunteers.  A  constitutional  movement  in  Ire- 
land is  never  very  far  from  a  breach  of  the  Constitution,  as  the 
loyalists  of  Ulster  had  been  so  eager  to  show  us. 

The  difference  between  us  was  that  the  Ulster  champions  chose  a 
path  they  felt  would  lead  to  the  Woolsack,  while  I  went  a  road  I 
knew  must  lead  to  the  dock.  And  the  event  proves  we  were  both 
right.  The  difference  between  us  was  that  my  "treason"  was  based 
on  a  ruthless  sincerity  that  forced  me  to  attempt  in  time  and  season 
to  carry  out  in  action  what  I  said  in  words  —  whereas  their  treason 
lay  in  verbal  incitements  that  they  knew  need  never  be  made  good 
in  their  bodies.  And  so,  I  am  prouder  to  stand  here  to-day  in  the 
traitor's  dock  to  answer  this  impeachment  than  to  fill  the  place  of 
my  right  honorable  accusers. 

We  have  been  told,  we  have  been  asked  to  hope,  that  after  this 
war  Ireland  will  get  Home  Rule  as  a  reward  for  the  life-blood  shed 
in  a  cause  which,  whoever  else  its  success  may  benefit,  can  surely  not 
benefit  Ireland.  And  what  will  Home  Rule  be  in  return  for  what  its 
vague  promise  has  taken,  and  still  hopes  to  take,  away  from  Ireland? 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  435 


Home  Rule,  when  it  comes,  if  come  it  does,  will  find  an  Ireland 
drained  of  all  that  is  vital  to  its  very  existence,  unless  it  be  that  un- 
quenchable hope  we  build  on  the  graves  of  the  dead.  We  are  told 
that  if  Irishmen  go  by  the  thousand  to  die  not  for  Ireland,  but  for 
Flanders,  for  Belgium,  for  a  patch  of  sand  on  the  deserts  of  Meso- 
potamia, or  a  rocky  trench  on  the  heights  of  Gallipoli,  they  are 
winning  self-government  for  Ireland.  But  if  they  dare* to  lay  down 
their  lives  on  their  native  soil,  if  they  dare  to  dream  even  that 
freedom  can  be  won  at  home  by  men  resolved  to  fight  for  it  there, 
then  they  are  traitors  to  their  country,  and  their  dream  and  their 
deaths  alike  are  phases  of  a  dishonorable  fantasy. 

But  history  is  not  so  recorded  in  other  lands.  In  Ireland  alone 
in  the  twentieth  century  is  loyalty  held  to  be  a  crime.  If  loyalty 
be  something  less  than  love  and  more  than  law,  then  we  have  had 
enough  of  such  loyalty  for  Ireland  or  Irishmen.  Where  all  your 
rights  become  only  an  accumulated  wrong;  where  men  must  beg 
with  bated  breath  for  leave  to  subsist  in  their  own  land,  to  think 
their  own  thoughts,  to  sing  their  own  songs,  to  garner  the  fruit  of 
their  own  labors  —  and  even  while  they  beg,  to  see  these  things 
inexorably  withdrawn  from  them  —  then  surely  it  is  a  braver,  a 
saner,  and  a  truer  thing  to  be  a  rebel  in  act  and  deed  against  such 
circumstances  as  this  than  tamely  to  accept  it  as  the  natural  lot  of 
man. 

Sentence  of  death  by  hanging  was  thereupon  passed  on 
the  prisoner  and  this  was  duly  carried  out  on  August  3, 
1916,  at  Pentonville  Prison.  At  the  moment  of  the  death 
of  the  patriot  the  crowd  of  Britishers  who  had  assembled 
outside  the  jail  gave  vent  to  their  feelings  by  booing  and 
jeering.  The  following  is  the  cabled  account  of  the  execu- 
tion, passed  by  the  British  censor,  and  dated  London,  August 
3: 

Roger  Casement,  Irish  rebel,  died  a  traitor's  death  on  an  English 
scaffold  this  morning  in  Pentonville  Prison  at  9  o'clock,  and  his 
body  was  buried  in  quicklime  beneath  the  stones  of  the  prison  yard. 

"I  die  for  my  country,"  were  Casement's  last  words;  "into  Thy 
hands,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit.  Jesus,  receive  my  soul."  The 
next  moment  the  trap  was  sprung. 

A  great  crowd  began  to  collect  outside  the  prison  this  morning  as 


436    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


the  hour  for  the  execution  drew  near,  and  as  the  prison  bell  began 
to  toll,  at  20  minutes  to  9,  the  streets  for  two  blocks  in  front  of  the 
gates  were  black  with  people,  who  alternately  cheered  and  groaned 
at  the  heavy,  measured  strokes  of  the  bell. 

In  the  rear  of  the  prison,  as  close  as  possible  to  the  point  where 
the  scaffold  stands,  and  huddled  away  from  the  rest  of  the  crowd, 
was  a  little  knot  of  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen  who  had  gathered 
there,  apparently  with  the  hope  that  their  fellow-countryman  might 
feel  that  in  his  last  moments  a  few  friends  were  still  near. 

Just  before  9  o'clock  the  bell  ceased  tolling,  and  a  great  silence 
fell  upon  the  people.  All  knew  what  it  meant  —  the  doomed  man 
was  ascending  the  scaffold.  Then,  at  1  minute  past  9,  came  a  single, 
heavy,  reverberating  peal  of  the  bell,  and  simultaneously  the  crowd 
burst,  as  though  from  an  uncontrollable  impulse,  into  an  outcry 
which  sounded  as  though  compounded  of  a  mocking,  jeering  yell 
and  a  half  hysterical  wail. 

That  was  a  sound  which  echoed  over  the  stormy  waves  of 
the  Irish  Sea  to  rouse  to  a  still  grimmer  pitch  of  determina- 
tion a  nation  which,  having  tasted  once  more  of  the  power 
of  freedom,  if  for  only  the  brief  spell  of  one  week,  will  carry 
on  the  fight  till  the  Green,  White  and  Orange  flies  in  triumph 
over  a  free  and  independent  Irish  Republic. 


APPENDIX 


IRELAND'S  ROLL  OF  HONOR 


The  following  are  the  names  of  the  men  who  were  killed 
during  the  fighting: 


The  O'Rahilly 
Sean  Connolly 
John  O'Reilly 
Gerald  Keogh 
Richard  Murphy 
Peter  Macken 
William  Maguire 
John  O'Grady 
Richard  O'Carroll 
Francis  Burke 
Edward  Walsh 
Sean  Howard 
John  Dromean 
Andrew  Byrne 
Michael  Malone 
James  Corcoran 
Harry  Coyle 
Patrick  Whelan 


George  Reynolds 
Joseph  Kelly 
Con  Keating 
Edward  O'Reilly 
Patrick  Shortis 
John  Hurley 
Edward  Ennis 
domhnall  sheehan 
Francis  Macken 
John  Costello 
Charles  Darcy 
John  Crinegan 
Richard  Kent 
Peter  Manning 
D.  Murphy 
William  McDowell 
J.  Owens 


Patrick  O'Flanagan 
John  Traynor 
Thomas  Weafer 
Philip  Walsh  ' 
Thomas  Allen 
J.  Geoghegan 
Philip  Clark 
Thomas  O'Reilly 
James  Byrne 
Peter  Wilson 
Patrick  Doyle 
Charles  Corrigan 
James  Quinn 
John  Healy 
Joseph  Byrne 
John  Adams 
D.  Murray 
John  Devane 


The  following  are  those  who  were  sentenced  by  the  Courts- 
martial,  in  addition  to  those  executed: 

Thomas  Bevan,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Thomas  Walch,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Finian  Lynch,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Diarmuid  C.  Lynch,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Thomas  Ashe,  penal  servitude  for  life. 
Michael  Mervyn,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Dennis  O'Callaghan,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
P.  E.  Sweeney,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Patrick  M'Nestry,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
Peter  Clancy,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
William  Tobin,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
George  Irvine,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
John  Doherty,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
J.  J.  Walsh,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
James  Melinn,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
J.  J.  Reid,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 
John  Williams,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 


4SS   HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Francis  Fahy,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 

Richard  Davys,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 

John  M 'Garry,  eight  years'  penal  servitude. 

Thomas  Hunter,  penal  servitude  for  life. 

William  Cosgrove,  penal  servitude  for  life. 

Edward  Duggan,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Pierce  Beasley,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Joseph  Maguinness,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Constance  Georgina  Markievicz,  penal  servitude  for  life. 

Henry  O'Hanrahan,  penal  servitude  for  life. 

George  Plunkett,  penal  servitude  for  ten  years. 

John  Plunkett,  penal  servitude  for  ten  years. 

Philip  B.  Cosgrave,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

W.  Meehan,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

R.  Kelly,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

W.  Wilson,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

J.  Clarke,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

J.  Brennan,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

P.  Wilson,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

F.  Brooks,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

R.  Coleman,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

T.  Peppard,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

J.  Norton,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

J.  Byrne,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

T.  O'Kelly,  penal  servitude  for  five  years. 

James  T.  Hughes,  penal  servitude  for  ten  years. 

Peter  Doyle,  penal  servitude  for  ten  years. 

J.  Wilson,  two  years'  imprisonment  with  hard  labor. 

E.  Roach,  one  year's  imprisonment  with  hard  labor. 

James  O'Sullivan,  eight  years'  penal  servitude. 

Vincent  Poole,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

William  P.  Corrigan,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

John  Downey,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

James  Burke,  three  years'  penal  servitude, 

James  Morrissy,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Maurice  Brennan,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Gerald  Doyle,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Charles  Bevan,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Patrick  Fogarty,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

John  Faulkner,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Michael  Brady,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

George  Levins,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

John  F.  Cullen,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

J.  Dorrlngton,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

W.  O'Dea,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

P.  Kelly,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

James  Dempsey,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

Michael  Scully,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

J.  Crenigan,  one  year  with  hard  labor. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF 


1916 


439 


Wit  J  jam  Derrington,  one  year  with  hard  labor. 

Edward  de  Valera,  'penal  servitude  for  life. 

John  McArdle,  three  years'  penal  servitude. 

C.  O'Donovan,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

John  Shouldice,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

Thomas  Ashe,  penal  servitude  for  life. 

Frank  Lawless,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 

James  Lawless,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 

Richard  Hayes,  twenty  years'  penal  servitude. 

Henry  James  Boland,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

Gerald  Crofts,  five  years'  penal  servitude. 

Frank  Drennan,  ten  years'  penal  servitude. 

Charles  O'Neill,  one  year  with  hard  labor. 

Bryan  Molloy,  Galway,  ten  years. 

Michael  de  Lucy,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 

John  R.  Etchingham,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 

Rorert  Brennan,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 
James  Rafter,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 
Richard  F.  King,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 
James  Doyle,  Enniscorthy,  five  years. 
James  Joyce,  Dublin,  five  years. 
Fergus  O'Connor,  Dublin,  three  years. 
Philip  Joseph  MacMahon,  Dundalk,  three  yean. 
Michael  Reynolds,  Dundalk,  three  years. 
John  Quinn,  Dundalk,  three  years. 
Michael  Grady,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Charles  White,  Athenry,  one  year. 
John  Haniffy,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Martin  Hansrerry,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Michael  Higgins,  Athenry,  one  year. 
John  Grady,  Athenry,  one  year. 
James  Murray,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Thomas  Barrett,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Patrick  Kennedy,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Thomas  Kennedy,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Murtagh  Fahy,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Michael  Donohue,  Athenry,  one  year. 
Patrick  Weafer,  Maynooth,  six  months. 
John  Greaves,  Maynooth,  six  months. 
Joseph  Ledwick,  Maynooth,  six  months. 
Conor  McGinley,  Dublin,  three  years. 
John  Carrick,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Michael  Hehir,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Christopher  Carrick,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
William  Corcoran,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Patrick  Fury,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Eddy  Corcoran,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Thomas  Fury,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Michael  Higgins,  Oranmore,  three  years. 


440    HISTORY  OF  THE  SINN  FEIN  MOVEMENT 


Patrick  Flanagan,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
James  Loughlin,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Michael  Toole,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Joseph  Burke,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Joseph  Howley,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
T.  F.  Fury,  Oranmore,  three  years. 
Timothy  Brosnan,  Kerry,  five  years. 
Colan  O'Geary,  Mayo,  ten  years. 
John  Tomkins,  Wexford,  ten  years. 
Jeremiah  C.  Lynch,  New  York,  ten  years. 
Peter  Gallian,  Wexford,  five  years. 
Patrick  Fahy,  Galway,  ten  years. 
Thomas  Desmond  Fitzgerald,  Dublin,  ten  years. 
William  Partridge,  Dublin,  ten  years. 
Michael  Fleming,  Sr.,  Galway,  three  years. 
John  Corcoran,  Galway,  three  years. 
William  Hussey,  Galway,  three  years. 

Michael  Fleming,  Jr.,  Galway,  one  year.  \_for  life. 

John  (Eoin)  MacNeill,  convicted  and  sentenced  to  penal  servitude 

A  large  number  of  men  were  arrested,  deported,  and  con- 
fined in  jail  as  criminals  without  any  charges  being  preferred 
against  them  and  without  a  trial.  The  following  are  the  batches 
of  prisoners  and  the  dates  on  which  they  were  deported: 

Two  hundred  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond 
Barracks,  Dublin,  on  April  30th,  and  lodged  in  Knutsford 
Detention  Barracks,  England,  on  May  1st. 

Two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  prisoners  were  removed  from 
Richmond  Barracks,  Dublin,  on  April  30th,  and  lodged  in 
Stafford  Detention  Barracks  on  May  1st. 

Three  hundred  and  eight  prisoners  were  removed  from 
Richmond  Barracks,  Dublin,  on  May  2d,  and  lodged  in  Knuts- 
ford Detention  Barracks  on  May  3d. 

Three  hundred  and  seventy-six  prisoners  arrested  by  the 
military  authorities  were  received  at  Wakefield  Detention 
Barracks  on  May  6th. 

Two  hundred  and  three  prisoners  were  removed  from 
Richmond  Barracks,  Dublin,  on  May  8th,  and  lodged  in 
Stafford  Detention  Barracks  on  May  9th. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-seven  prisoners  were  removed 
from  Richmond  Barracks,  Dublin,  on  May  8th,  and  lodged 
in  Wandsworth  Detention  Barracks,  London,  on  May  9th. 


AND  THE  IRISH  REBELLION  OF  1916  441 


Fifty-four  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Barracks, 
Dublin,  on  May  12th,  and  lodged  in  Wandsworth  Detention 
Barracks,  London,  on  May  13th.  Among  those  deported  at 
this  time  was  Arthur  Griffith,  the  father  of  the  Sinn  Fein  Policy. 

Fifty-eight  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Bar- 
racks, Dublin,  on  May  12th,  and  lodged  in  Stafford  Detention 
Barracks  on  May  13th. 

Two  hundred  and  seventy-three  prisoners  were  removed 
from  Richmond  Barracks  on  May  12th,  and  lodged  in  Wake- 
field  Detention  Barracks  on  May  13th. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-seven  prisoners  were  removed 
from  Dublin  on  May  19th  to  Barlinnie  Detention  Barracks, 
Glasgow,  and  to  Perth  Detention  Barracks. 

Forty  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Barracks, 
Dublin,  on  May  19th,  and  lodged  in  Woking  Detention  Bar- 
racks the  following  day. 

Fifty-nine  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Bar- 
racks on  May  19th  and  lodged  in  Lewes  Detention  Barracks 
on  the  following  day. 

One  hundred  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Bar- 
racks, Dublin,  on  June  1st,  and  lodged  in  Wakefield  Deten- 
tion Barracks  on  the  following  day. 

Forty-nine  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Barracks, 
Dublin,  on  June  1st,  and  lodged  in  Wandsworth  Detention 
Barracks  on  the  following  day. 

Fifty  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Barracks, 
Dublin,  on  June  1st,  and  lodged  in  Knutsford  Detention 
Barracks  on  the  following  day. 

Forty-one  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Barracks, 
Dublin,  on  June  6th,  and  lodged  in  Knutsford  Detention 
Barracks  on  the  following  day. 

Twenty-five  prisoners  were  removed  from  Richmond  Bar- 
racks, Dublin,  on  June  15th,  and  lodged  in  Knutsford  De- 
tention Barracks  on  the  following  day. 

An  official  list  of  two  hundred  and  twelve  prisoners  con- 
fined at  Richmond  Barracks,  Dublin,  was  issued  on  Saturday, 
May  20th. 


INDEX 


Act,  Home  Rule  {see  Home  Rule 

Bill,  Third) 
Aeroplane  corps,  Irish,  151 
Africa,  South,  53 

Agriculture,  department  of  {see  De- 
partment of  Agriculture) 

Amending  Bill,  Home  Rule,  100 

America,  United  States  of,  22,  24,  36; 
news  of  rebellion  plans  leaks  from, 
241,  242;  and  Sinn  Fein,  4 

America,  South,  23 

Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  136 

An  Cumann  Eitel,  151 

Anti-recruiting  campaign,  35 

Argentina,  8,  22,  24,  50 

Arigna  coal  mines,  25 

Aristotle  and  Irish  education,  4,  5 

Armenians,  36 

Arms  Act  proclaimed  in  Ireland,  85 
Arms  brought  to  Dublin  Volunteers, 
259 

Army,  British   {see    British  Army; 

Anti -recruiting,  etc.) 
Ashbourne,  battle  of,  409 
Ashe,  Thomas,  409 
Asquith,  Herbert  Henry,  62,  69,  71, 

72,  98,  115,  116 
Assembly,  Irish  National,  42,  46 
Atrocities  in  Ireland,  British,  123 
Aud,  the,  fitted  with  arms  cargo  for 

Ireland,  243;  leaves  Germany  for 

Ireland,    241;     voyage    of,  246; 

blown  up  by  her  crew,  251 
Australia,  22,  53 
Austria,  34,  38,  44 
Austro-Hungary,  22,  24 

Bachelor's  Walk,  Massacre  of, 
95,  96 


Bailey,  Private  Daniel,  244 

Balance  of  Power,  60 

Balfour,  Arthur  James,  71 

Banks  in  Ireland,  43 

Barricade  in  North  Earl  Street,  298; 

in  Stephen's  Green,  302,  304;  at 

Jacob's   Factory,    305;    in  Post 

Office  Area,  323,  383;    at  Phibs- 

boro,  349,  350 
Battle  of  Ashbourne,  409;  Mount 

Street  Bridge,  357,  358,  359,  360; 

Phibsboro,  350 
Beasley,  Piaras,  151 
Beer,  British  revenue  from  sale  of,  39 
Belgium,  21,  22,  24 
Betrayal,  Home  Rule,  62,  63 
Birrell,  Chief  Secretary,  71;  alarmed 

about  Volunteers,   236;  receives 

R.  I.  C.  Report,  256;  consents  to 

military  plot,  277 
"Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,"  Ireland's, 

36 

Blythe,     E.,    Volunteer  organizer, 

arrested,  237,  257 
Boer  War,  38,  43 

Boland's  Mills  occupied,  312;  sur- 
render of,  396,  397 

Bombardment  of  Dublin,  356,  357, 
361;  of  Liberty  Hall,  355,  356 

Bowen-Colthurst,  Captain  {see  Mur- 
der of  Sheehy-Skeffington) 

British  Army,  disloyalty  in,  79,  80; 
Englishmen  in,  37;  Scotsmen  in,  37; 
Irishmen  in,  36 

British  officer  executed  by  his  own 
men,  387 

British  soldiers  in  Ireland,  conduct  of, 
36,  37 

Bruga,  Cathal,  courage  of,  402 


444 


INDEX 


Buckingham  Palace  Conference,  101 
Burning  of  Dublin,  361 

Campbell-Bannerman,  Sir  Henrt, 
61 

Canada,  8,  22,  24,  35,  53 
Carlisle,  Lord,  8 

Carson,  Sir  Edward,  73,  99,  113,  128, 
129;  and  his  Volunteers,  74 

Casement,  Sir  Roger,  290;  in  America, 
196,  197,  198,  199,  200;  leaves  for 
Germany,  201;  plot  to  kill,  202; 
receives  statement  from  German 
Government,  214;  appeals  to  Irish- 
men, 215;  and  the  German  Arms 
for  Ireland,  239;  and  the  Rebellion, 
240;  leaves  Germany  in  submarine, 
244;  letter  to  his  sister,  244,  245; 
held  up  in  Heligoland,  247;  arrives 
in  Ireland,  252;  sends  message  to 
Eoin  MacNeill,  263,  264;  arrested 
by  British,  267;  placed  on  trial, 
426;  speech  from  the  dock,  427; 
execution  of,  433,  434 

Castle,  Dublin  (see  Dublin  Castle) 

Catholics  and  Protestants  in  Ireland, 
226 

Ceannt,  Eamonn,  163,  164,  280,  284; 
in  South  Dublin  Union,  317,  318; 
surrender  of,  396,  405;  execution  of, 
418 

Charles  Street,  fighting  in,  324 
Charter  of  Irish  Liberty,  285 
Chili,  22,  24 

Christian  Brothers,  Irish,  2,  5,  6 

Citizen  Army,  the,  140 

City  Hall,  Dublin,  occupied,  309,  310; 

attack  on,  348,  349 
Civil  Service,  Irish,  31,  32,  33 
Clarke,  Mrs.  T.,  141 
Clarke,  Thomas  J.,  119,  144,  145,  149, 

151,  280,  281,  283,  284;  last  stand 

by,  395;   execution  of,  417,  421, 

244,  425 


Coal  in  Ireland,  18,  25 
Coalition  Cabinet,  the,  127 
Colbert,  Cornelius,  execution  of,  418, 
419,  420 

Collection  of   taxes   reserved  from 

Ireland,  55,  56 
Colonies,  British,  53 
Commandant  of  Dublin  Forces  (see 

Connolly,  James) 
Commerce,  Irish,  and  Sinn  Fein,  21 
"  Concessions  Be  Damned!  "  147, 148, 

149 

Conference,  the  nine  hours',  279 

Confusion  in  Cork,  410 

Connolly,  James,  121,  140,  157,  160, 

161,  162,  279;  receives  wound,  379; 

proclamation  issued  by,  379,  380, 

381;    agrees   to   surrender,  394; 

execution  of,  424;    statement  at 

court-martial,  424,  425 
Connolly,  Nora,  279,  424 
Connolly,  Sean,  308,  309 
Conscription,  133,  217 
Consular  service,  Irish,  23,  24 
Cork,  and  Sinn  Fein,  9;  confusion  in, 

410 

Cork  Celt  suppressed,  121 

Cork  Harbor  Board,  17 

Council  of  Three  Hundred,  46 

Councils  Bill,  Irish,  63 

County  Councils,  Irish,  8,  9,  16,  18, 

25,  31,  46 
Courage  of  women  rebels,  362 
Covenanters  of  Ulster,  76 
Cromwell,  36 

Cumann  na  mBan,  141,  142,  176;  girls 
of  at  Liberty  Hall,  279,  285,  286; 
girls  as  messengers,  286;  courage 
of  girls  of,  362,  363,  364,  365 

Curragh  mutiny,  79,  80 

Custom  House  captured  by  British, 
341,  342 

Customs  and  excise  under  Home 
Rule,  53 


INDEX 


445 


Daly,  Edward,  occupies  Four 
Courts,  328;  execution  of,  418 

Deak,  Francis,  35,  60 

Deantha  i  nEirinn,  19 

Defense  of  the  Realm  Act,  122,  217 

Demobilizing  orders,  267,  273 

Denmark,  22,  24,  65 

Department  of  Agriculture,  47,  48 

De  Valera,  Edward,  221,  311;  at 
Boland's  Mills,  313,  314,  315; 
repulses  British,  316,  317;  surren- 
der of,  397 

Devonshire,  Duke  of,  61 

Devoy,  John,  138,  139 

Disarming  of  Irish  Volunteers,  plots 
for  the,  135,  254,  257,  276,  277 

Disloyalty  in  British  Army,  79,  80 

District  Councils,  Irish,  16 

Dolan,  Charles,  63 

Dublin,  Borough  Fund,  49;  Corpora- 
tion, 49;  Castle,  218;  capture  of, 
306;  Port  and  Docks  Board,  16, 
17;  Stock  Exchange,  40 

Editorial  from  Sinn  Fein,  120,  121, 
180,  181;  from  Irish  Freedom,  147, 
148,  149;  from  The  Volunteer,  183 
Education  and  Sinn  Fein,  1 
Education  Fund,  National,  6 
Emigration,  Irish,  65 
England  and  the  small  nations,  222 
Englishmen  as  fighters,  37;  in  British 
army,  37 

English  nobles  and  Irish  Freedom,  66, 
67 

Enniscorthy,  rising  in,  407,  408,  409 
Esmond,  Sir  Thomas,  63 
Executions,  the,  412 

Fairview  fighting  at,  398 
Famine,  peril  of,  233 
Fenian  motto,  84 

Fianna  na  hEirinn,  142,  172;  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons,  304 ;  attack  on 
the  castle  by,  307;  surrender  of,  396 


Finance,  Irish,  40 

Financial  Relations  Commission,  re- 
port of,  64,  65 
Finland,  1,  50 

Fires,  the  Dublin  (see   Burning  of 
Dublin) 

Force  to  settle  Irish  Question,  77 

Ford,  Patrick,  186,  187 

Ford,  Robert  E.,  187 

Four  Courts,  the,  219;    area,  326; 

surrender  of,  396 
France,  22,  24,  28 

Freeman's  Journal,  62,  81;  and  Vol- 
unteer incident,  258 
Friends  of  Irish  Freedom,  189 

Gaelic  American,  The,  139 
Gaelic  Athlete,  The,  122 
Gaelic  League,  the,  6,  140,  141 
Galway,  rising  in,  406,  407 
General  Council  of  the  Councils,  18, 
46 

George,  Lloyd,  68,  69 

Germany,  10,  21,  22,  24,  28,  78,  79, 

104;  statement  to  the  Irish  people, 

214,  215;  and  the  rebels,  219,  220; 

cooperation  of,  not  essential,  221 
Gold  in  Ireland,  45 
Gold  not  an  Irish  color,  231 
Government    of    Ireland   Bill  (see 

Home  Rule  Bill,  Third) 
Government  stockbrokers,  40 
Gray,  Edmund  Dwyer,  45 
Grazing  lands,  Irish,  8 
Greece,  65 

Green,  white,  and  orange  tricolor,  84, 

92,  226,  294 
Grey,  Sir  Edward,  61,  62 
Griffith,  Arthur,  1,  10,  49,  61,  62,  119, 

140,  151,  178,  179,  181,  182 
Gun-running  in  Ulster,  78,  101 

Harbor  Commissioners,  Irish,  16, 
17,  46 


446 


INDEX 


Helga,  English  gunboat,  355,  356 
Heuston,  J.  J.,  execution  of,  418,  419 
Hibernians,  Ancient  Order  of,  186 
Hobson,  Butler,  151,  216;  arrested 

by  Volunteers,  289 
Holland,  22,  24,  50 
Home  Rule,  26,  52,  59,  68,  69 
Home  Rule  Bill,  Third,  52,  59,  65,  98, 

99,  100,  116,  130 
"Home  Rule  is  Dead,"  62 
Honesty,  122 

Hungary,  6,  7,  34,  35,  38,  43,  44,  50, 
60 

India,  22 
Industries,  Irish,  8 
Intrigue,  Home  Rule,  61 
Ireland,  122 

Ireland,  and  the  war,  104;  British 
redcoat  in,  36,  37;  partition  of, 
suggested,  75;  technical  instruction 
in,  47,  48;  valuation  of,  47 

Irish  banking,  43;  coal,  18,  25;  canals, 
25;  Christian  Brothers,  2,  5,  6, 
Civil  Service,  31  ,32, 33;  commerce, 
21;  consular  service,  23,  24;  Coun- 
cils Bill,  63;  County  Councils,  8, 
9,  16,  18,  25,  31;  courts  of  law,  34, 
Finance,  40;  Harbor  Boards,  17, 
46;  in  America,  148;  liberty,  char- 
ter of,  285;  Local  Government 
Board,  29;  Irishmen  in  British 
Army,  36;  Mercantile  Marine, 
21,  22,  23;  National  Assembly, 
42,  46;  newspapers  suppressed, 
121,  122;  Parliament  and  Third 
Home  Rule  Bill,  52;  Parliamen- 
tary Party  (see  Parliamentary 
Party);  poor  law  system,  27;  race 
convention,  189;  railroads,  25;  Re- 
publican Brotherhood,  81,  84,  138, 
139,  185,  186;  Republic,  reasons 
for  a,  223;  Stock  Exchange,  40; 
Taxation,   38,  39;   Tobacco,  19; 


Trademark,  19,  20;  Transport 
Workers'  Union,  140;  Tricolor  (see 
Green,  white,  and  orange);  Urban 
Councils,  16,  31,  46;  Volunteers  of 
1780,  21;  vote  in  Great  Britain, 
60,  62 

Irish  Freedom,  119,  139,  146;  editorial 

from,  146,  148,  149 
Irish-Germanic  Alliance,  219 
Irish  Independent  ignores  Volunteers, 

81 

Irish  Volunteers  of  1916,  formation  of, 
81;  plot  to  disarm  the,  135,  245, 
275,  276,  277;  proclamation  issued 
by,  211,  212,  213;  convention  of, 
213;  break  with  Redmond,  213; 
why  called  Sinn  Fein,  213;  secret 
session  of,  216;  Council  meetings 
of  the,  237;  organizers  of,  arrested, 
237;  hold  up  trolley  car,  258 

Irish  War  News,  345,  346,  347 

Irish  Worker,  121 

Irish  World,  186,  187,  188 

Italy,  22,  24,  28 

Jacobs'  Biscuit  Factory  occupied, 

304,  305;  surrendered,  396 
Japan,  22,  24 
Jews,  36 

Kaiser  Wilhelm  II,  73,  75,  77,  79 
Keely,  John,  death  of,  295 
"Kelly's  Fort,"  218,  219,  322 
Kent,  murder  of  Thomas,  410,  411, 
420 

King's  own  Scottish  Borderers,  93, 

94,  95 
King's  Veto,  101,  102 
Kossuth,  Louis,  10,  43,  44 

Lancers,  British,  routed,  295 
Law,  Bonar,  75,  76,  77 
Law  courts,  national,  34 
"  Leopardstown  Races,"  295 


INDEX 


447 


Liberty,  Charter  of  Irish,  285 
Liberty  Hall,  218,  275,  276;  nine 
hours'  conference  at,  278;  bombard- 
ment by  British,  355,  356;  cap- 
tured by  British,  356 
Liberty  of  the  Press,  121,  122,  127 
Libraries,  Irish  National,  47 
Linen  Hall  Barracks,  capture  of,  367 
List,  Frederick,  10,  11,  12,  20,  21 
Local  Government  Board,  Irish,  29,  49 
Lords,  House  of,  and  Home  Rule,  66 
Louth,  rising  in,  409 

MacDermott,  Sean,  119,  145,  146, 
147,  149,  150,  151,  280,  284;  in  the 
Post  Office,  383;  execution  of,  421, 
422,  423,  424 

MacDonagh,  Thomas,  7,  157,  158, 
159,  160,  267,  284;  surrender  of, 
395;  execution  of,  415,  416,  417 

MacNeill,  Professor  Eoin,  7,  83,  98, 
140,  182,  183;  article  by,  183; 
presides  at  secret  session,  216; 
receives  message  from  Casement, 
266;  issues  demobilizing  order, 
267;  disappears,  288 

Magazine  Fort  captured,  329,  330, 
331 

Mallin,  Michael,  301;  execution  of, 
418,  419 

Maloney,  Helena,  174,  175,  176 

Manifesto  issued  by  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment, 346,  347 

Markievicz,  Countess  Constance,  142, 
171,  172,  173,  174,  175,  176;  in 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  304; 
attack  on  the  Castle  by,  307; 
surrender  of,  396 

Martin,  John,  60 

Martyn,  Edward,  1 

Massacre  of  Bachelor's  Walk,  95,  96 

McBride,  Major  John,  166,  167;  in 
Jacob's  factory,  305;  execution  of, 
418 


McLoughlin,  Joseph,  188 

Meath,  County,  60 

Mellows,  William,  Volunteer  organ- 
izer, arrested,  237,  257,  406 

Mercantile  Marine,  Irish,  21,  22,  23 

Monaghan,  A.,  Volunteer  organizer, 
arrested,  237 

Monteith,  Captain  Robert,  244 

Morley,  John,  61 

Mount  Street  Bridge,  Battle  of,  357, 

358,  359,  360 
Murder  of  Sheehy-Skeffington,  369; 

of  Thomas  Kent,  410,  411 

National  Assembly,  42,  46 
National,  Banks,  44,  45;  Council, 

1,  14;    Education  Fund,  6;  Law 

Courts,  34;  Libraries,  47 
"National"  Schools  in  Ireland,  5,  6 
National  Stock  Exchange,  42 
"National"  Volunteers,  98;  classed 

as  "Supine"  by  British,  235 
Nation,  The,  34 
Newman,  Mrs.  Agnes,  244 
Newspapers  suppressed,  121,  122,  238 
New  Statesman,  letter  to,  253 
Nine  hours'  conference,  279 
Northcliffe  papers  support  Carson,  76 
North  Dublin  Union,  29 
Norway,  21,  22,  65 

Obstruction,  Parnell's  Policy  of, 
60 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  34 
O'Connell  Street  patrolled,  323 
O'Connor,  T.  P.,  misstatements  by, 
235 

O'Hannigan,  Donal,  410 

O'Hanrahan,  Michael,  167,  168;  exe- 
cution of,  418 

O'Rahilly,  The,  45,  150,  51,  152; 
ride  to  Limerick,  270;  returns  to 
Dublin,  287;  joins  the  rebels,  288; 
leads  dash  from  Post  Office,  385; 
killed  in  action,  386 


448 


INDEX 


Orangemen,  50,  226 
Order  for  the  Rebellion,  first,  265 
Order  for  the  Rebellion,  second,  290 
O'Reilly,  John,  309,  310 

Paper  Money,  45 
Papineau,  35 
Parliament  Act,  the,  65 
Parliamentary  Party,  Irish,  26,  59, 

97,  189,  262 
Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  60,  61 
Partition  of  Ireland  suggested,  75,  98, 

99,  100 

Pearse,  President  Padraic,  152,  153; 
editorial  by,  153;  at  nine  hours, 
conference,  280;  selected  as  presi- 
dent, 583;  signs  proclamation,  284; 
speech  outside  the  Post  Office,  296, 
297;  police  appointed  by,  341; 
statement  made  by,  345,  346; 
manifesto  issued  by,  346,  347; 
signs  order  for  surrender,  394; 
execution  of,  413,  414,  415;  last 
proclamation  by,  382,  383 

Pearse,  William,  168;  execution  of,  418 

Penal  Laws,  British,  2 

Phibsboro,  barricade  at,  349,  350; 
Battle  of,  350 

Pledge  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  84 

Plot,  disarmament  (see  Irish  Volun- 
teers) 

Plunkett,  Joseph  Mary,  164,  165,  280, 

284;  execution  of,  418 
Pogrom  planned  by  British,  253,  260, 

261,  275,  276,  277,  333,  334,  335 
Poland,  6,  7,  50 
Police,  Irish,  appointed,  341 
Poor  Law  Guardians,  16,  46 
Poor  law  system  in  Ireland,  27 
Portugal,  22 

Post  Office,  Dublin  General,  217,  218; 
capture  of,  291,  292;  area  of,  320; 
bombardment  of,  383;  set  on  fire, 
384;  retreat  from,  385 


President   of   Irish   Republic  (see 

Pearse,  Padraic) 
Priests  and  people,  233 
Privy  Council,  British,  53 
Proclamation  of  the  Irish  Republic,  7, 

283,  284 
Protection  in  Ireland,  15 
Protestants  and  Catholics  in  Ireland, 

226 

Provisional   Government  manifesto, 
346,  347 

Railroad  Stations  in  Dublin,  219 
Rebellion  of  1916,  58,  59;  not  a  Sinn 
Fein  Rebellion,  138;   how  it  was 
planned,  217;  order  for  the,  265 
Redcoat  in  Ireland,  36,  37,  123 
Redmond,  John  E.,  54,  55,  62,  63,  64, 
71,  72,  75,  96,  97,  98,  99,  113,  129, 
130,  134,  135,  139,  186,  187,  188, 
189,  210;   as  recruiting  sergeant, 
116,  117;  knowledge  of,  of  con- 
ditions in  Ireland,  234;  speech  in 
Gal  way,  233;   and  Volunteer  inci- 
dent, 258 
Religion,  Wars  of,  in  Ireland,  226 
Republic,  reasons  for  an  Irish,  223; 
proclamation  of  the  Irish,  283,  284, 
293 

Restrictions  under  Home  Rule,  56 
Ringsend  (see  Boland's  Mills) 
Rotunda,  Dublin,  1,  49,  81,  82 
Royal  assent,  53,  55 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons  occupied, 
304 

Royal  Dublin  Society,  8 

Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  32,  56; 

report  on  Volunteers,  256 
Russia,  22,  24,  35 

Scissors  and  Paste,  121,  122 
Scotland,  22,  62 
Scotsmen  in  British  army,  37 
Secret  orders  to  military,  260,  261 


INDEX 


449 


Shamrock  for  Irish  soldiers  of  Eng- 
land, 38 

Signers  of  Irish  Proclamation,  284 

Sinn  Fein  Policy,  1 ;  and  education,  1 ; 
and  industries,  8;  and  protection, 
15;  and  commerce,  21;  and  poor 
law  system,  27;  and  consular  serv- 
ice, 23,  24;  and  Civil  Service,  31,  32, 
33;  and  National  Law  Courts,  34; 
and  anti-recruiting,  35;  and  Taxa- 
tion, 38,  39;  and  Irish  finance,  40; 
and  banking,  43;  and  Council  of 
Three  Hundred,  46;  and  Third 
Home  Rule  Bill,  51,  54;  and  Home 
Rule  betrayal,  63 

Sinn  Fein,  suppressed,  119;  editorial 
from,  120,  121,  180,  181 

Skeffington,  Francis  Sheehy-,  253; 
appeals  to  looters,  297,  298;  murder 
of,  369 

Small  nations,  England  and,  222 

Smith,  Adam,  10,  12 

South  Dublin  Union  occupied,  317; 
attack  on,  repulsed,  318;  surrender 
of,  396,  405;  fighting  at,  400 

Spain,  22,  24 

Split  between  Volunteers,  97,  98 
Stephen's  Green  position,  299,  300; 

capture  of,  301;  fortification  of,  302 
Stock  Exchange  in  Ireland,  40 
Strike  against  taxes,  38 
Strongbow,  36 

Suppression  of  Irish  newspapers,  121, 
122 

Surrender  of  Republicans,  393 
Sweden,  64,  65 
Switzerland,  65 

Taxation,  Irish,  38,  39,  63,  64,  65; 

under  Home  Rule,  55,  56;  increase 

of,  in  Ireland,  238 
Technical  instruction  in  Ireland,  47, 48 
The  Gael,  122 

The  O'Rahilly  {see  O'Rahilly) 


The  Spark,  122 

Three  Hundred,  Council  of,  46 

Tilled  land  in  Ireland,  8 

Tobacco,  Irish,  19 

Trade  mark,  Irish,  19,  20 

Transit  in  Ireland,  25 

Treachery  of  Liberal  Government,  61 

Treason  of  Sir  Edward  Carson,  76 

Treaty  of  1783,  59 

Tri-color,  Irish   (See  Green,  white, 

and  orange) 
Trim  woolens,  41 

Trinity  College,  Dublin,  4,  7;  attack 

on,  310,  311 
Turks,  36 

Ulster,  59;  Volunteers,  74;  percent- 
age of  Nationalists  in,  99,  100 
Union,  Act  of,  59 
United  Irish  League,  62 
United  Irishmen,  39 
United  States  of  America  (see  America) 
University,  Irish  National,  7 
Urban  Councils,  Irish,  16,  31,  46 

Valuation  of  Ireland,  47 

Veto,  British,  on  Irish  Parliament,  52; 

Lords'  (see  Parliament  Act) 
Victoria,  Queen,  38 
Volunteers,  Irish,  of  1780,  21;  Irish 

(see  Irish  Volunteers);  "National" 

(see  National  Volunteers);  Ulster 

(see  Ulster  Volunteers) 
Volunteer,  The,  editorial  from,  183 

War  Taxes  in  Ireland,  238 
Whisky,  British  revenue  from  sale  of, 
39 

Wimborne,  Lord,  274,  275 

Women,  atrocities  committed  upon 
Irish,  123;  courage  of,  in  the  Re- 
bellion, 362;  under  Home  Rule,  57 

Women's  place  in  an  Irish  republic, 
224 

Workers'  Republic,  122 
Wurtemburg,  65 


7050.  .  I  g 


BOSTON 

COLLEGE 

3  9031  031  41517  7 


